Coast title deeds are legal, says Duale

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.