Monday,
November 25th 2013
Jubilee
coalition leaders have challenged former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to prove
his claims that title deeds issued at the Coast were il legal. They further
declared Nyanza residents will be the next beneficiaries. National Assembly
Majority Leader Aden Duale said President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Government would in
the next two months issue title deeds to residents of Nyanza, where the CORD
leader is popular. “The next place where we are going to take the exercise is
Bondo and Siaya. Then we will go to Migori and Homa Bay counties. We will make
sure that those without land titles get them,” Duale said yesterday.
He spoke
during a press conference at Parliament Buildings accompanied by other Jubilee
leaders who condemned Raila’s utterances. MPs Johnson Sakaja (nominated, TNA),
Rachael Shebesh (Nairobi, TNA), Anthony Ichung’wah (Kikuyu, TNA), Jonathan
Lelelit (Samburu West, URP) and Alois Lentoimaga (Samburu North, TNA) were
present. New policy The MPs said the ex-Premier was misleading the nation by
claiming that a document issued by a legitimate Government is il legal. Lands
Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu also waded into the controversy. Ngilu
dismissed claims that the 60,000 title deeds were not backed by records at the
ministry. Ngilu said the ministry has a digital database containing all the
information in respect of titles issued at the Coast. “This is in line with the
ministry’s new policy to migrate from paper-based documents to digitised
records, which cannot be easily manipulated for document security and
authenticity,” Ngilu said in a statement.
Jubilee leaders challenged Raila to
produce any single title deed issued to proof there were fakes. Duale said the
coalition government for which Raila was a co-principal had been unable to
process the titles in fives years but the Jubilee government had done so in
five months. Raila sparked the latest exchange when he alleged the 60,000 title
deeds issued by the President were il legal and intended to help the Government
court the region. “We have a lot of respect for the former Prime Minister. But
he must not mislead Kenyans that title deeds issued are fake and il legal. Let
him prove to us any document is fake. They failed to deliver in five years, but
we have delivered it in only five months,” said Duale. Political contest
The
Jubilee leaders accused Raila of engaging in political contest in everything
even when the Government was doing the correct thing. “The Jubilee
administration had identified and begun to sort out the sole sticking issue
that has held Coast back. Land theft that had intensified in the last regime
has been halted and the swathes of stolen land reclaimed,” Duale claimed. He
challenged former Lands Minister and Siaya Senator James Orengo to tell Coast
residents why for all the years he was in charge of the docket they had not
been given title deeds. They claimed under Orengo’s watch, thousands of Kenyans
had no title deeds and accused him of dishonesty in claiming those distributed
by the Jubilee government were il legal.
On the controversy over ‘Nyumba Kumi’
security initiative, the leaders said even though it’s not expressly provided
in the Constitution, there is need to conduct the exercise to reduce
insecurity. Duale said that the practice of knowing one’s neighbour exists in
several countries including the US and asked Kenyans to embrace the exercise.
“We are appealing to Kenyans to embrace this exercise. This is a practice even
in the US. We must know our neighbours to decrease the rising levels of
insecurity,” added Duale. CORD rejected the Government-driven initiative at a
recent parliamentary group meeting saying it was unconstitutional.
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