Stop all evictions, State told

 A woman with a baby standing outside her polythene-made tent along a road in Sigotik area in Njoro,Nakuru County on August 28,2014. She is among the Over 600 families of minority Ndorobo community who were evicted by the government from their lands in Sigotik Forest in Mau East about five years ago. PHOTO: KIPSANG JOSEPH

Calls to uphold property rights highlighted the recent commemoration of the 64th International Human Rights Day.

With concerns that despite huge milestones in the human rights arena, housing and land rights continue to be snubbed by the State. Many families are spending days and nights in the cold following cases of forced eviction either by the Government or private property disputes.

As the world celebrated the International Human Rights Day on December 10, institutions locally renewed calls for the enactment of the Eviction and Resettlement Procedures Bill.

According to the Economic and Social Rights Centre (ESRC) acting executive director Pauline Vata, the pro-poor property rights law has been waiting to be tabled in Parliament since March.

The Centre now calls for a stop to all evictions of families by the State until a law is passed to guide the process.
“We are demanding for a moratoriam on evictions until the Evictions Bill is passed into law,” Vata says.

She says that the Access to Information Bill should also be passed into law towards effective citizen participation in legislation. “The inhumane forced evictions would today be unheard of had the Ministry of Lands fast tracked the passing into law of the Evictions and Resettlement Procedures Bill,” Vata explains.

The Evictions and Resettlement Procedure Bill provides for procedures on evictions, protection, prevention and redress against eviction even for illegal occupiers.

It protects occupiers of land from unlawful and unprocedural forced evictions in line with Article 43 (1)(b) of the Constitution, which provides for the right to accessible and adequate housing.

On the other hand, thousands of acres of community land remain at the risk of land grabbers countrywide following lack of proper laws to protect them.

Interestingly, the Community Land Bill has two versions one before the Senate and the other due to be tabled in Parliament.

Confusion

This confusion and inordinate delay in enactment of the legislation has seen private developers grab vast community land as the voiceless communities are left in the cold.

The Community Land Bill gives customary land rights equal to other statutory rights and allows communities to administer their land.

It also makes it difficult for the elite, government officials and brokers to grab community land which has been the norm since independence.

“Once enacted, the innovative legislation would usher in a new land tenure system that exclusively protects the threatened community land,” says Vata.

The inordinate delays in passing into law the twin Bills led human rights organisations to petition Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu during the International Human Rights Day.

“We (ESRC) participated in presenting the petition to the Cabinet Secretary to push for immidiate enactment of the two Bills,” Vata explains.

The concerns detailed in the petition were that the Eviction and Resettlement Bill is yet to be tabled in Parliament despite Ngilu having received it in March from the National Taskforce on Eviction Resettlement Bill and Community Land Bill. They also want the Cabinet Secretary to ensure that all Bills touching on land to go through rigorous citizen participation before enactment.

Sadly, the twin Bills are still pending even though two different task forces were put in place by the National Government to look into them.

The ESRC argues that the enactment of the Community Land Bill will enhance security of tenure in peoples’ settlements.

Late last year, Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu issued a public notice seeking views from the public on the two Bills.

“As part of public participation, the Ministry wishes to seek views, comments and suggestions from stakeholders and members of the public on these Draft Bills,” Ngilu said.

The Cabinet Secretary said that the deadline for receiving input from stakeholders was November 29th, 2013.
Legal experts argue that without community land and eviction laws, the Government will continue issuing a barrage of notices to pave way for construction of mega projects.

Infrastructure projects

Currently, communities are keeping their fingers crossed as the government rolls out mega infrastructure projects like the Sh2 trillion Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset), which will transform Lamu, Isiolo and Lodwar into resort towns and special economic zones.

The project, also known as the second transport corridor, comprises the Lamu Port at Manda Bay, a railway line, highway, oil refinery, oil pipeline and airports at Isiolo, Lamu and Lodwar.