Cord
leader Raila Odinga last week revealed that land-grabbing is to blame for the
ongoing violence in Lamu and other parts of the Coast region and has vowed to
ensure that those who grabbed the land returned it.
What
many failed to know is that the TJRC report and that of Draft National Land
Policy dated June 2009 extensively addresses the land problem along the coast.
The
report reveals the Ten-Mile Coastal strip which covers 1,128 parcels of land of
over 80,000 hectares in Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi, Tana River and Lamu
districts are government land.
According
to the report, about 70,790 coastal families in Kwale, Kilifi and Malindi are
now in settlement schemes on a 351,300.5 hectarage. The report further
identified six categories of squatters namely indigenous, invading and
trespassing squatters, squatters illegally allocated land but have paid money,
professional squatters and tenants-at-will squatters.
The
problem of absentee landlords remains a thorny issue in the Coast region. The
report reveals that it is estimated that absentee landlords own over 77,753.02
hectares of land in Coast region and broken down as follows: - Mombasa district
(301ha), Malindi district (234.17ha), Kwale district (75,982.4ha) and Kilifi
district (1235.85 ha). Data for Tana River and Lamu districts are still being
compiled.
In
Msambweni district, the report reveals that controversial land matters are far
from over mainly in Diani, Lunga Lunga and Kasemeni divisions. By 2002, 14,000
titles had remained uncollected.
In
Mbughuni, the report reveals that the land was allocated to squatters in the
1990s but the allocation was nullified in 2007 by the then lands minister.
All
is also not well at the Tumbe Settlement Scheme in Kwale which covers 135ha
that is also identified as a squatter scheme but the matter is currently in
court after some people claimed that the people who benefited from the
allocations were mainly from outside the region.
At
Gazi Swahili village settlement scheme, the heir of the Mazrui family was to
relinquish his land to settle locals while at the Magaoni Scheme, over 680
letters of offer have been released however, and the acquisition of the land on
which the scheme is established is not yet formalised.
The
Ramisi Phase One Settlement Scheme, which is part of the old Ramisi land, it is
roughly 42,000ha. The land was sub-divided into five-acre plot with half an
acre for homesteads. They were allocated to existing squatters and those
displaced by the Kwale International Sugar Company.
The
Diani, Ukunda and Mrima Bwiti schemes have been registered while at Gonjora,
980 squatters were identified in the village of Gonjora, Dzibwage, Kibwanga,
Fingirika, Nguluku, Maumba, Vumbu and Mwakoyo. These squatters according to the
report have occupied the land for several decades even when Ramisi Sugar Factory
was functioning and sugarcane was not grown on the land.
The
area the squatters occupy is about 5,000 acres while part of the land which is
about 2,000 acres was given to Tiomin for mining purposes. The report reveals
that Kwale International Sugar Company was to lose about 7,000 acres which
required compensation.
In
Lamu district, the report reveals that most of the land in this district is
government-owned though large portions have been given to private individuals
as ranches.
What
is shocking is that in Lamu Island (Amu), most of the town lies in A land that
is owned by one land-owner identified as Maawiya. The island mostly has the
tenants-at-will and the majority of landlords have written tenancy agreements
with them. Most farmers here are private except Wiyoni which is
government-owned.
Lamu
has conventional schemes that were started around the 1970s; Kenyatta, Hindi
and Magogoni. At the Faza Island in Lamu East, by 2008, about 488 families had
benefited from the allocations. The village was given one allotment letter
(block title). It is, however, important to note that in Lamu East, no survey
or demarcation had previously been done on land occupied by indigenous people.
In
Ngomeni (Magarini), it is a private land owned by the Department of defence and
is currently occupied by squatters but DoD wants them moved out. The report
says that some government land had been identified to be given to the families
as alternative resettlement but they have refused.
They
claim the alternative land is 20km away from the sea yet they are fishermen and
again there were reports that they will not be welcome in the new area called
Majenjeni.
In Kilifi district, which covers
Kikambala, Bahari, Chonyi, Ganze, Vitengeni, Bamba and Kaloleni, most of the
land is private-owned. While in Magarine Settlement Scheme in Malindi district,
there is a mature project that began in the early 70s with the support of
Canada and other European countries.
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