Mixed reactions over President Uhuru’s directive on Lamu land

NAIROBI, KENYA: Mixed reactions greeted the cancellation of land title deeds by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday evening.

Many Lamu residents welcomed the cancellations saying it was a good beginning in tackling historical land injustices in the north coastal county.

A resident  Sheikh Muhdhar Khitamy said the move was long over due because a few individuals had acquired vast ranches at the expense of residents while the Lamu county government did not have land for development purposes.

“This is a very good beginning for Lamu county where a few individual have acquired large chunks of land in the form of ranches while the county government does not own even a single acre,” Khitamy who is also Coast chairman of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) said.

He said next move should be for the government to fully involve  local people in the development of Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) project and ensure they get jobs and other benefits associated with the project.

“The president should extend similar cancellations of irregularly allocated land in other counties in Coast if Jubilee is to get political mileage in the region,” he said.

Former Lamu county council chairman Mr Abdalla Fadhil said the revocation of 476,051 acres by the president can now  ensure all the 100,000 residents of Lamu county have land.

 “The president’s move now ensures that there is land for every resident of Lamu if fairly shared out. We now urge the president to ensure employment of locals in the Lapsset project and speed in the allocation of more than  3000 residents at the Swahili settlement,” said Fadhil, chairman of the Lamu port stakeholders steering committee.

However  Mr Rishad Amana, local politician and former director of the 79,534 acre Witu Nyangoro ranch whose allocation was also cancelled said a task force should have been formed to first investigate the allocations before the president could take such a drastic move.

"People bought these ranches and it is unfair for the president to cancel the allocation without compensating the owners," Amana argued.

He said the ministry of lands and the National Land Commission should have been fully involved in investigating the allocations to ensure justice, adding that Lamu governor Issa Timamy has so far invited the NLC chairman Dr Mohamed Swazuri three times to Lamu to sort out land problems.

He argued that Witu Nyongoro ranch belonged to Lamu people and that they should be fully compensated if the government takes over the land to allocate other people.

Chief executive officer of the Coast Landless Social Forum Mr Nicholas Mrima Wanyepe welcomed the president’s decision but said Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta face similar problems.

"The president should extend the cancellations of irregularly allocated land to Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta among other counties to have an impact in Coast," Wanyepe said.

The land grabbed represents 70 percent  of available arable land of Lamu County.

Elsewhere the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leaders have defended former Lands Minister James Orengo's over claims that the rot being experienced in the ministry happened under his watch.

The leaders scoffed at President Uhuru Kenyatta for only focusing on the year between 2011 and 2012 yet the historical injustices at the coast involving land dates back to 1960s.

Member of the National Assembly for Homa Bay town Opondo Kaluma said it will be unfair to blame Orengo's tenure on the land injustices.

Kaluma alleged that the lands officials as low as the district lands registrars were working independently allocating lands corruptly to people even without the consulting the minister.

He gave an example of the sale of Grand Regency hotel in which Orengo came out fighting because he was not aware of anything.

"Orengo was like a flower girl with no powers at the ministry," said Kaluma during an interview on television, adding that the land issues dates years back.

Kaluma said the issues of land should be left for National Lands Commission (NLC) and not the cabinet Secretary handling that docket.

He challenged president Uhuru to implement the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation report as that will end the wrangles on land countrywide.

This was shared by Nyando MP Fred Outa who urged the president to be a role model by returning the grabbed land in the coast region.

Outa however defended the 22 private companies whose title deeds are revoked claiming they need to be given a fair hearing as they too were sold for the pieces of land.

"The president is running away from addressing the root cause of land injustices," he added.

Kisumu East MP Shakeel Shabbir said Orengo held the docket for only one term yet rot in the ministry goes 50 years back when the land registrar was given unfettered powers by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Danial Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru's regimes.