THE COASTAL LAND INJUSTICES CONTINUE UNABATED
By Phil Wesonga
How do you lease your own birthright? How can you rent the land of your own forefathers? I weep for Waitiki squatters now forced to pay rent for land which belongs to them rightfully by birth. To rub it in, they were told to their faces hamukunipigia kura.
Whether you voted for Raila Odinga or not; when it came to granting people of Kenya their birth right you got your right to land ownership. A valid title deed processed by the then Land minister James Orengo.
To this end, the difference between Raila and Uhuru is like day and night. Look no further than the TJRC report which extensively covered the land question and its related injustices. TJRC established that communities at the coast were systematically disenfranchised for more than 50 years and had suffered the longest, the most severe and the worst forms of land injustices from KANU and now Jubilee governments.
To add insult to injury, they are now being forced to pay for two.year certificate of lease for their own land! Leases that cannot get you a loan from a shylock let alone a bank. You make someone a refugee in their own country.
Instead of implementing the TJRC report Uhuru and his government prematurely sent the comprehensive report to the archives and denied Kenya the opportunity to heal historical injustices.
Events of this week have proven that communities at the coast will.continue to suffer insults from the same people whose godfathers are the biggest land owners in Africa and continue to subject ordinary peasants to untold suffering.
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