Friday, November 18, 2022 – Kwanza Member of Parliament (MP) Ferdinand Wanyonyi has tabled a motion in parliament seeking to control the size of land that can be owned by Kenyans.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, Wanyonyi proposed that the government should cap the minimum and maximum size of land owned privately.
He wants the government to enforce compliance of Article 68 (c) (i) of the Constitution, Section 159 of the Land Act, 2012 and the National Land Policy by publishing the rules and regulations for private land use and management.
“With high population growth and the demand for land have resulted in excessive fragmentation of land into uneconomic units.”
“The population growth in Kenya is rapidly growing and we should increase food production to avoid famine and hunger that we are now experiencing,” Wanyonyi remarked.
On the other hand, the lawmaker argued that the government should be allowed to dictate how owners of large tracks of land utilise them arguing that no land should be left idle.
“The government should levy such and so that the owners pay tax on the land that is not being used,” he argued.
Furthermore, Wanyonyi’s motion proposes that public institutions such as national schools, and universities should not hold onto large tracks of land.
“We are saying that instead of expanding horizontally, they should do it vertically: they should build their buildings going up. The land left fallow should be used to do production,” he defended his motion.
The motion was seconded by his Endebess counterpart Robert Pukose who added that maximum utilization of land will not only guarantee food security.
Pukose added that the use of idle land will help to ease congestion in urban and semi-urban areas. The MP stated that more houses can be built on storeyed structures.
The motion has put huge landowners President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta on edge, considering that majority of their land is idle.
The Kenyan DAILY POST.
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