Pledge to redistribute Kenya land

By Odhiambo Joseph
BBC News, Mombasa

Read the entire article at:  http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5275670.stm




Summary:

The Kenyan lands ministry has said it will repossess all land owned by "absentee landlords" in the coastal strip and redistribute it to squatters.

Acting Lands Minister Professor Kivutha Kibwana said the ministry would invoke the compulsory acquisition clause in the Lands Act to repossess land given out to foreigners and companies in the 1920s by the colonial government, and distribute it to the coastal people immediately.

After many previous broken promises, local MP Samwel Gonzi Rai says the latest pledge should be treated with caution.

Retired Mombasa teacher and "senior squatter" Mwalimu Mwatata agrees: "The title deeds that they have these days are those of the colonial time," he says.

"We fought for independence to get our land, and it is now that we are to be given back our land.

"We have not had a process of trying to solve this problem right from the ground...



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