Techno Brain officials during the launch of the Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) training program on September 13, 2013. PHOTO/COURTESY
Hardly two weeks since the government issued
title deeds to hundreds of Coastal people, they have started selling the
land for peanuts.
This raises a fundamental question: what is the value of the titles to the supposed land owners, not just at the Coast but elsewhere in the country?
The question of land ownership at the Coast is historical. It started hundreds of years ago with the arrival of the Arab traders who came by sea to do business in the Eastern coast but later decided to acquire land from the locals to settle.
The Western Christian missionaries, who came many years later, also first set base at the Coast where they established the early churches, like at Rabai, before expanding inland. As they settled, the immigrants displaced the original land-owners and the trend of dispossession continued.
When Kenya became independent in 1963, the land ownership question, especially at the Coast was never addressed and subsequent regimes have lamentably failed to do so.
The moneyed and powerful elite that emerged post-independence went ahead to take large chunks of land and continued dispossessing the people and creating an army of landless.
Even those whose land remained intact were never given title deeds, and over time this became a hot political subject. Against this backdrop, President Uhuru Kenyatta took a bold step to resolve the question.
Given the majority of
those selling their land is poor, the people do not see any value in
holding on to title deeds and would rather they got the money.
Clearly public education is critical to change the mindsets and convince the people against selling their titles.
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