Raila: Jubilee gave Coast squatters fake land titles

ODM leader Raila Odinga addressing residents of Mombasa at Likoni Caltex grounds. He told them to turn up in large numbers in the ongoing voter registration. [Photo: Gideon Maundu/Standard].

Opposition leader Raila Odinga and two governors have renewed their criticism of the Jubilee administration's at the Coast.

Raila and governors Hassan Joho (Mombasa) and Amason Kingi (Kilifi) accused the Government of issuing fake title deeds to squatters and refusing to resolve historical land injustices in a comprehensive manner.

They said the December 19 High Court judgement, which declared that close to 3 million title deeds issued by the Lands ministry since 2013 were illegal because the State did not allow the participation of the National Land Commission and the public, was a clear demonstration of Jubilee's reckless conduct and non-commitment to comprehensive land reforms.

"Jubilee is the enemy of the Coast people. They duped you with title deeds which have since been declared fake by the court. Those are not my words, it is the court's directive," said Raila in Likoni, Mombasa last evening.

Under Jubilee, thousands of title deeds have been issued in all the coastal counties.

Last week, Lands Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi, however, said in spite of the judgement, there was no cause for alarm.

The CS noted that the judgement was suspended for a year to allow the national government remedy the situation.

"As rightly directed by the court in its judgement that the orders shall not operate retroactively, grants, leases and certificates of titles that have been registered and issued by the ministry since 2013 are legal valid and legitimate," said Kaimenyi.

Meanwhile, Raila renewed criticism of Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i, alleging that his handling of last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams should be investigated because of what he termed "mass failure at the examination".

Raila claimed Matiang'i was being hailed for ruining the future of candidates who failed the examination.

"We cannot celebrate an individual when we are destroying a whole generation of our youth. Only 15 per cent attained university entry points. It cannot be that 85 per cent were fools," he said.

He said Matiang'i and Education ministry officials should be probed to determine what went wrong, adding that it was unlikely that all the students who passed in the past years were stealing exams.

On doctors' strike, the ODM leader criticised the Government for using the court to intimidate the doctors and called for sincere talks to end the standoff.

Raila, Joho, Kingi and other ODM leaders addressed rallies in Kwale, Likoni, Tudor and Changamwe in Mombasa to rally supporters to register as voters for the August 8 General Election.

Joho said the ills the Government had done to its people were at a boiling point and that it should not be given an extra term to lead.

"If it is injustices they (Jubilee) have done, if it is looting our land they have done; if it is robbing us our resources they have done... a thief is a thief and there is no any other name," he said.

And while throwing a salvo at Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya who ditched ODM for Jubilee, Joho cautioned residents against joining Jubilee, saying those who have defected have done so in their own capacity.

Mr Kingi said within four years that Jubilee has been in power, their only agenda has been to issue 'fake' titles.