Jubilee should embark on unfinished land reforms business

A section of panellists who took part at the State House Summit on Land in November 14, 2016

The Land Summit held yesterday at State House, Nairobi, did not provide the much-anticipated answers. Land remains the most vexatious subject in Kenya.

The Jubilee government gave its commitment to solve the long-standing land problem when it was installed in 2013. Indeed, there have been discernible efforts in that direction. To date, the Government has issued more than 2.4 million title deeds to deserving people.

Under former Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu, the registry of the much-maligned Lands ministry was revamped to make it more sensitive in dealing with those seeking its services. Files that had hitherto disappeared due to corrupt dealings were recovered. President Uhuru Kenyatta has also personally taken the initiative to resettle a number of squatters at the Coast by donating 4,000 acres of his family land.

These noble gestures are however negated by rising incidence of corruption, with public figures openly associated with the illegal acquisition of public and school land for private development. The bad blood between the Ministry of Lands and the National Land Commission in tackling land issues only makes it difficult to solve land injustices.

The Government needs to come clean on the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report which, in the eyes of the public, holds the key to solving the problem. After so much time and money was spent on seeking answers, it is only logical that the report be made public and parliament allowed to deliberate on it.

One way of restoring public confidence is to recover stolen land and those found culpable punished in accordance with the law. While the war on cartels that issued fake title deeds has yielded results, cases of people still being issued with fake title deeds are reported. It is equally important that the Community Land Bill 2015, the Physical and Spatial Planning Bill 2015, and the Land Laws (amendment) Bill 2015 are operationalised.