Issuance of title deeds should not be politicised

By John Katana

Kenya: David Easton, a revered Canadian political scientist defined the art of politics as “the authoritative allocation of resources and value.”

He further highlighted that political actors struggle and compete to capture political power for the sole reason of gaining authority to allocate resources to the people.

These sentiments were also backed by Prof Harold Laswell who summarised in effect that politics is about “who gets what, when, and how.”

The jubilee government in its manifesto promised Kenyans that their government will be that of action, facilitating the citizenry to access and utilise resources for the betterment of their lives. Appreciating that political power is a public trust, which must be treated as such to the benefit of the nation. 

Kenyans will recall the bruising campaigns that preceded the March 4th elections, where a section of the CORD leadership used the land issue to polarise the country without offering viable alternatives to solve the problem.

But the Jubilee coalition chose to ignore the naysayers, instead, prioritising to solve the land issue by putting it in the manifesto; no wonder they easily clenched power. The issuance of over 60,000 land title deeds to coastal people by President Kenyatta and his deputy in the past week is an act of true leadership and servant hood.

They have, for a long time, lived without title deeds yet these titles have been gathering dust at Ardhi House, with previous leadership exhibiting apathy towards solving the problem, instead supplying fodder to political busybodies out to gain political capital from the issue.  

Benefits accruing from owning a title deed is clear as the day can be from the night, that it is not only a factor of production, but also a gem for accessing credit from financial institutions. Stories of youth doing value addition to land by coming up with innovative agricultural products and leveraging on ICT to access markets have graced our prime time news, gaining admirations from the citizenry.

Youth at the coast, hitherto riddled by drug addiction, crime and general lawlessness due to unemployment, have now a reason to redefine their future by being innovative and participate in adding value to these lands given to their parents, by adopting best practice in farming for the betterment of their households.

However, the scarecrow tactics displayed by Cord leader, Raila Odinga and his political sympathisers, are counter-productive, irritating and fatiguing even to their thinning support base. The recent derisive comments from Mr Odinga that the president is undertaking a clerical exercise by issuing title deeds is baffling to say the least. The CORD leadership held senior positions in the past government with immense powers to bring about economic empowerment to the people.

Interestingly, the lands ministry was a docket under the then ODM side of government, where they had the mandate to solve the land problem at the coast but instead, they chose to play politics with the issue, leaving the coastal people with nothing but empty riddles.

Shrinking support base

The CORD outfit practices archaic politics which are retrogressive and are meant to enslave the citizenry in poverty; they abhor development. How else can one explain the recent opposition to the issuance of title deeds, knowing far too well that it is what the people want, and expect of a government. Instead they prefer the status quo for purposes of charming the populace with empty promises to solve the problem, if elected to power.

This kind of zero-sum politics, where CORD leaders believe capturing power to reward communities or regions which elect them is stale, backward and only useful in history books.

Luckily, the coastal people together with their leadership are not that naïve as some want them to be, but instead choose to accept the tittles and work towards alleviating their current disposition.

The coastal leadership, particularly the opposition, has demonstrated political maturity and risen above political bigotry by collaborating with the Jubilee government to deliver the very promises that they pledged to their electorate; this is true leadership.

The current spiral degeneration of the CORD outfit is not enviable; they have failed to offer progressive leadership to this nation through constructive criticisms and contributions to key priority areas to strength our governance structure, a key pillar in the delivery of the Vision 2030, which will drive this country to the middle income economy status.

Instead, they behave like a lobby group with no course, constantly gasping for attention by opposing anything government, with a malevolent aim of destructing government efforts to serve the nation; clearly, this is an effort in futility.

With the ever shrinking support base, it is just a matter of time before they run out of steam, disintegrate, and disappear in oblivion.

The opposition should instead emulate mature democracies where issues that benefit the citizenry are not opposite for the sake of it, but rather receive by-partisan support. 

The writer is Chairman, Kwale Youth Consortium.