BY SAADA ABDI
The Nubian community in Kibra will definitely keep
their fingers crossed that the promise made by Jubilee government to give them
a piece of land in Kibra will materialize.
President
Uhuru Kenyatta, during his campaigns, promised to give the community title
deeds so that they can transform the land from a slum to an economically
productive land. Recently the Lands’ cabinet secretary Charity Ngilu visited
Kibra to seek the Nubians’ and other residents’ permission to go ahead and
fulfill the promise made by the President and issue the title.
Since
October when the cabinet secretary Ngilu met with the residents and
particularly the Nubian community and promised to have a title deed issued in
the name of a trustee ownership, nothing has happened for the community. In
fact it is the cabinet secretary who has been cornered to fight for her
political life when the Parliament moved to censure her.
The
title deed was supposed to be issued in two weeks after cabinet secretary
Ngilu’s meeting with the Nubian community. It is now two months.
While
some sections of Kenyans have termed President Kenyatta’s move to issue owners
and squatters with title deeds, the government should not allow the politics of
manipulation into the issue of lands which has always been emotive.
First
of all the government should be commended for getting involved in the
distribution of lands to owners and squatters who were at risk of losing their
land. Residents of Coast province and other places who benefited from the lands
programme can bear witness that President Kenyatta’s government is out to make
things right.
But
when the government gives a promise to do something within a specified time and
then it does not do so, it only evokes a feeling of negligence, if not
ignorance, to the residents who believe in such promise and look forward to its
fulfillment.
In
the case of the Nubian community in Kibra if the promise is not fulfilled as
soon as possible it will only add to the perception that theirs is a
discriminated tribe that is only remembered during political campaigns but
forgotten as soon as a campaigner gets to the elective office.
Let
us all remember that politicians near the Kibra constituency use the Nubians’
sufferings are political campaigns whenever it serves their political
ambitions.
It
is about time that the government helped in replacing slums with better housing
and neighbourhoods. This cannot happen when the land on which a slum is built
has no recognized and legal ownership because the government will be more in
court that changing lives.
The
slum upgrading programme in Kibra has at times been hitting a snag as some
slumlords have ensured that the rickety tin and mud houses they rent to the
poor are not demolished and replaced by the government.
It
is only through a legal land ownership that the country can best achieve the
Vision 2030 in time. Legal land ownership and title deeds will ensure that the
real owners are in a position to develop their estates or parcels and that such
lands are economically active.
To
replace the biggest slum in Kenya with an economically viable district, the
government will have to start with the Nubians and then bring other communities
into the programme.
SOURCE-The New Dawn
