Is Jubilee using title deeds as political bait to bag the Coast?

President Uhuru Kenyatta presents land papers to a Kwale resident on Monday.  [PHOTO: FILE/ STANDARD]

By JACOB NG’ETICH

KENYA: The week-long exercise to issue 66,000 title deeds at the Coast presided over by President Uhuru Kenyatta has been clouded by high octane politics.

But undeterred by protests, President Kenyatta warmed his way into the hearts of residents of the region by presenting the largest number of title deeds in history to squatters.

The President brushed aside hostility from a group of leaders in the region, who were opposed to the issuance of title deeds after fears were raised about the identity of recipients. Critics also questioned how such a large number of title deeds could have been processed without the input of local leaders and wondered how the beneficiaries were identified.

Senior Ministry of Lands officials took time to explain that the title deeds were not all new and that quite a number of the land ownership documents had been lying at the ministry headquarters for decades dating back to independence. Reasons for the delay in issuing of the deeds were not explained.

Long held tradition

In distributing the title deeds, the President was perfecting a tradition that has been established and nurtured by former presidents. Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki used title deeds as a bait to win political support.

It would appear that the politics of title deeds would continue overshadowing the much talked about land reforms as envisioned in the new Constitution.

In the morning of August 30, 2006 President Mwai Kibaki presented title deeds to residents of the then Kilifi District at the Karisa Maitha Grounds and promised that it was only the beginning in resolving land woes in the Coast region.

Kibaki reassured people in the region that his government would ensure that land issues in Kilifi District and beyond would be a thing of the past. “We will not stop until the problem of landlessness in the district is resolved because residents of Kilifi and Coast Province as a whole have a right to own land,” said President Kibaki. He assured those present the Government would not allow absentee landlords hold onto land that would otherwise be put to better use by residents.

President Kibaki had at the time started his 2007 re-lection campaign and it appeared he wanted to endear himself to voters in the region. He had been in office since 2002.

“I will continue issuing title deeds in the province until the squatter problem in the region is completely resolved, you have every right to own land and we will not allow absentee landlords to frustrate these efforts,” he said.

Exactly seven years later, on August 30, 2013, President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto led five cabinet secretaries to the same venue, for the same mission and with the same message.

But the move by the President has elicited heated debate at the Coast and beyond over the role of the Executive in land allocation.

In September 2011, Lands Minister James Orengo issued title deeds and 1,709 land allotment letters to squatters at the Maganda Settlement Scheme in Changamwe. With him were Lands assistant minister Bifwoli Wakoli and area MP Ramadhan Kajembe both who ran on Cord ticket in the 2013 elections.

Mr Orengo toured several counties just like president Kenyatta did this week and issued title deeds to more than 6,500 residents.

Lamu visit

He visited Lamu, Kilifi and Mombasa counties where he assured residents that the gesture was genuine and was not a political ploy as was the case in the past.

He was alluding to the 2007 tour of the region by President Kibaki during which title deeds were issued but later taken back on grounds of anomalies such as wrong names and incorrect plot numbers. “Those ones were controversial, but not these ones,” stated Mr Orengo while issuing 3,421 title deeds in Mapimo, Magarini Constituency.

The land ownership documents were also issued at Faza in Lamu where 1,455 locals benefited and another 1,709 allotment letters given out at the Maganda settlement scheme in Changamwe.

The minister traversed remote parts of the region such as Mokoe, Mkunumbi, Mpeketoni, and Witu in Faza; Ngomeni, Gongoni and Malindi in Kilifi, and Diani in South Coast. “The indigenous people of the Coast are not squatters but have a historical claim to the land and their interests must be protected,” he said.

Not to be outdone, President Kenyatta this week engaged in perhaps the biggest title deed allocation exercise since independence.

The exercise to issue title deeds kicked off last Friday at the Karisa Maitha grounds in Kilifi and ended on Monday at Voi Stadium. While issuing the land ownership documents, President Kenyatta and his deputy said that all they were doing was to give deserving Kenyans papers for them to use to empower themselves economically.

“We knew right from the time we were campaigning that land is a factor of production and there is no way you can fight poverty without enabling people to own land, we must solve the land problem so as to unlock the land issue, we are determined,” said the President.

Big value

“The title deeds for the 60,000 we have given to you are worth over Sh20 billion. You need to take them seriously, let’s use this value to benefit us,” he said. Over 19,000 land title deeds were distributed in Kilifi County, 3000 in Mombasa, 2000 in Lamu, and the remaining 36,000 in Kwale, and Taita Taveta counties.

Cord coalition leader Raila Odinga claimed that the exercise was an attempt to win political support from the Coast region.

The region overwhelmingly voted for Cord leaders in the last general elections. Raila said the president should have left the exercise to the National Land Commission instead of doing clerical work. But President Kenyatta and his entourage were keen to dissociate the exercise from politics and categorically said it was part of its coalition’s manifesto.

 “This is not politics. We are cannot be playing politics with the lives of the people when we know very well that for us to turn around the region, we need to empower people,” said the President. Mr Ruto said they knew that the region voted for their rivals but since they were running the government, no one would be left out including those who did not vote for them.

“Sisi tunajua mlitukaranga lakini tuko tayari kufanya kazi pamoja, (we know you denied us votes, but we are ready to work together). We want to end this land problem once and for all so that it stops been a campaign issue,” he said.