By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com ( email the author)
Posted Monday, February 4 2013 at 01:30
Posted Monday, February 4 2013 at 01:30
In Summary
- Uhuru makes land the focus of his speech at the public presentation of his coalition’s manifesto, dedicating 10 of the 37 minutes to the matter
Jubilee on Sunday launched its coalition manifesto with a promise to radically reform land ownership if it wins the March 4 elections.
Presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta made land the focus of his speech at the public presentation of his coalition’s manifesto, dedicating 10 of the 37 minutes he spoke to the matter.
He avoided speaking directly about the large tracts of land his family owns, only suggesting that it was bought from British settlers after independence in clean commercial transactions.
Land is a traditionally sensitive matter in Kenya and it has become a political football in the competition between the coalition led Mr Kenyatta and that led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Mr Odinga and his coalition partners have criticised Mr Kenyatta on the basis that his family owns large tracts in various parts of the country, yet plenty of Kenyans are landless.
On Sunday, Mr Kenyatta described the land question as the “running sore that has poisoned relations between communities”.
“I have taken time to give this matter the consideration it deserves. I don’t want to score cheap political points… Land was the basis on which the war of independence was waged — it is too serious a matter to become a political football; too much blood has been shed in this country for that.”
He said the root of the land problem in Kenya can be traced back to the colonial era, where the British created three categories of land — crown, community and the private land they settled on.
Mr Kenyatta said the private land, which he said constitutes 20 per cent of Kenya’s land mass, was later sold to native Kenyans on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis.
“For too long the land debate has been about a small fraction of the land, while the fact that two thirds of our country is untitled has remained unnoticed and never part of the debate,” said Mr Kenyatta.
According to Mr Kenyatta, the bigger fraction of land in Kenya, 67 per cent, is community land.
If the coalition wins the presidency, he said, it would make it possible for people living on land owned by the community and referred to in the Constitution as trust land to get title deeds.
“Giving these people the right to own the land they live on will increase food production, create more investment, and improve housing and health,” he said.
By doing this, he said, the owners would take charge of their lives as they can use the land as security for loans as well as develop it as they wish.
It would also reduce the common disputes over ownership, he said.
In the Constitution, trust land would be managed by the yet to be formed National Land Commission.
If the plan comes to fruition, he said, it would be possible to get rid of Kibera slums in Nairobi.
“Kibera’s is some of the most valuable land in Nairobi,” he said, and “rough estimates of its value put the worth of land there at over Sh60 billion.”
The crowd at Kasarani took this as a gentle dig at Mr Odinga, who has been the MP for Lang’ata since 1992.
Kibera was originally a settlement for Nubian soldiers who fought in the First World War, but has grown into a famous slum with a population, according to the census, of about 170,000.
Mr Kenyatta said the plan for Kibera and similar settlemens would be to encourage private developers to agree with the owners of the land and put up low-cost high-rise houses.
“We will transform a slum into a thriving new community – without a single eviction or compulsory demolition. This is the model we intend to use in other areas where people live in slums,” said Mr Kenyatta.
He also said the coalition’s focus would be on making primary healthcare free within the first 100 days of their administration.
This would be through the release of funds for the purchase and supply of drugs and equipment for health centres, the abolition of fees in health centres and dispensaries and the scrapping of maternity fees.
He said his government would also push through Parliament laws to ensure children are in school until they reach 18.
Mr Kenyatta also made the seemingly ambitious promise to have all children enrolling in Standard One handed free solar-powered laptops and for this programme to be sustained until all pupils have laptops.
This drew cheers from a crowd that had spent the entire afternoon cheering as the organisers dazzled them.
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