To develop Kibra, land rights of the Nubian community should first be granted and respected

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