Mombasa,KENYA: Squatters in Chembani,Kisauni sub-county Mombasa have urged the government to come to their rescue following countless eviction threats by a tycoon who claims ownership of the piece of land.
Speaking to Baraka fm on Thursday a resident Amos Mburu pointed over 2000 people have been staying on the said land for over 17 years but are now under threats of eviction.
According to Mburu they want justice to take its course as they have no any place to go.
“I urge the government to come to our rescue. We have been living here for over 17 years and have full grown families. Someone who claims ownership of the land has threatened to evict us so many times. We are worried as have no place to go.” Said Mburu.
On the other hand, a Mombasa based lawyer John Magiya said that bad leadership and corruption are some of the key factors that have attributed to land injustices in the country.
Magiya added that bad leadership conceives selfishness that precipitates the desire to acquire land through illegal means by leaders and further noted that corruption among high profile leaders leads to illegal land acquisition there by grabbing land from the real owners.
“Bad leadership begets selfishness that is catalyzed by the desire to own land through illegal means. Corruption among leaders makes them acquire land through illegal means.” Magiya noted.
However, Magiya pointed that Kenyan constitution has stipulated guiding principles on land ownership, acquisition and adjudication and even established a national land commission body that oversees land adjudication in the society.
According to the Kenya government land draft policy published in 2016 some of the efforts by the government to address the land question include the Sessional Paper No 10. of 1965, and Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1986 on economic management that emphasized the importance of agriculture and Economic Recovery Strategy.
Other government initiatives in the form of Acts and Policies included among others Land Planning Act (Cap 303) Land Control Act,(Cap 302), Agriculture Act (Cap 318), and the National Development Plan 2002-2008.
The major aims of the National Land Use Policy is to provide institutional coordination in land use planning across all relevant sectors in line with the provisions of the Constitution, the objectives of Vision 2030 and Sessional No.3 of 2009 on National Land Policy.
