Lamu was all abuzz with a visit from a team of Ministry of Lands officials who went to Faza yesterday to hand out title deeds and today are in Mokowe. At Faza, title deeds were issues to some select residents of Faza and Tchundwa whose farms had already been surveyed since as early 2009. The remaining villages and a large proportion of the already surveyed lands did not yet have titles distributed.
The meeting in Faza was attended by dignitaries from the Ministry of Lands including the Minister himself, Assistant Minister, Director of Physical Planning, Director of Settlement, and almost a dozen other Ministry of Land officials. Leaders present included Honourable MPs Abu Chiaba, Shakila Abdalla, Chairman of Lamu County Council, Councillors, District Commissioners for Lamu East and West, and many more.
The catalyst of the process was a question asked by the nominated MP. Hon Abdalla to the Minister of land in Parliament on August 3rd (Download Hansard), which later led to a visit by the Parliamentary Committee on Lands and Natural Resources to Lamu on Aug 22nd.
The various leaders present thanked the Minister of lands, James Orengo, for handing out titles deeds for Faza in Tchundwa but asked for him to also consider other villages. Hon Abdalla particularly requested for the importance of educating the community on the difference between settlement schemes and adjudication as many locals have been misinformed about the two. Councilor Hussein of Faza, particularly asked for the Minister to address the fact that many Islanders also utilize land on the mainland, and also that most of teh land has been reserved for the port but does not belong to the people of Lamu.
The Minister later stood up to address the audience at which time he quelled the fears that that more tiles will be distributed and the process rushed to be completed before the end of the year. He promised that the land issues on Pate Island will be addressed before the port is constructed, but gave no indication of if the historical injustices will be dealt with or how land issues in other parts of Lamu will be dealt with. Considering that the plots in Faza were adjudicated almost two years ago, only time will tell if these promises are true.
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