By Bida Elly David
The national Ministry of Land and Housing has distant themselves from the on-going blames over illegal allocation of land title deeds to individuals pointing out that the misappropriation happening was due to the absence of the land policy which is yet to be completed and implemented.
The national and the state governments have severally been blamed of exercising injustices over unequal treatment amid allocation and allotment of land to citizens across the nation.
The ministry has been working on a national policy on land management and use for a long period of time pushing blames to the County’s state of instability.
Women also raised concerns amid total underestimation by families regarding ownership of land as well as inheritance of plots of land left by their departed husbands.
The land policy act has been a document that remained on workout over the last ten years hanging for deliberations and implementation leaving passive drawbacks among domiciles.
Speaking to the media after the drill yesterday on the importance of land policy towards issues concerning allotment and the use of land in the Country, George Rithi Richard, the Director of land in the national Ministry of Land and Housing refuted the blames that their officials were involved in corruption.
He said that the national ministry was only mandated to come with policies that would be implemented by the state Ministry of Land and Housing.
Mr. George said that all the malpractices in the aforementioned ministries happen due to ignorance and lack of knowledge for those who would have exercised justice and fairness amid service delivery.
He said that the land policy has been hanging for the past ten years without deliberation due to the civil war and the pandemic.
However, he refused to detail out the punitive measures against land grabbers since the final document awaits completion and parliamentary deliberations before its implementation.
“We are not supposed to talk about the land policy now since it is still undergoing processes. After dissemination of the policy, then we can talk about the land but I can assure you that the issue of land grabbing is a crime and punishable. Land grabbing has been common especially after the crisis in the Country,” he said.
At the same note, he said that the on-going land disputes between the governments and the community is not genuine since the constitution stated ownership of the land by the community but regulated by the government.
“The constitution states clearly that the land belongs to the community but regulated by the government. They are supposed to give portion of land to the government so that government distributes. Community is supposed to give government land for demarcation and allotment for the needy people but this never happened due to the policy,” he said.