Lands Ministry Reveals Largest Land Owners in Kenya [LIST]: Officials from the Ministry of Lands were on Monday forced to reveal the land distribution in Kenya during the State House Summit convened to address the land issues.
The summit presided over by Lands CS Jacob Kaimenyi kicked off with the officials focusing on general issues of land problems and the reforms that are being carried out to address the challenges.
However, during the summit, the moderator NTV journalist Wallace Kantai raised the issue of accumulation of large tracts of land by a minority group of Kenyans who have access to power.
The matter escalated, with attendees forcing the Ministry of Lands Principal Secretary Ms Mariamu El Maawy to identify the people or companies that own the largest pieces of land.
Maawy cleverly avoided the question but instead provided a list of land distribution in Kenya.
According to Maawy, Land ownership in Kenya is distributed among the following groups:
1. Community Land 71%
2. Public Land 15%
3. Private Land 14%
Probed further on the names that have the highest ownership of the private land, the ministry officials explained that a process of digitising land ownership was on course and once complete, the names would be availed.
The failure to provide names was not taken well on Twitter as various users lamented that State House had not delivered to its promise.
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Ken Proud citizen @KenOnecreative
#LandAnswerKE Ndungu report has the answers stop wasting out taxes on PR #StatehouseSummit
4:36 AM – 14 Nov 2016
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gathara
✔@gathara
Anyone mentioned “willing buyer, willing seller”?#StateHouseSummit #LandAnswerKE
4:01 AM – 14 Nov 2016
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Nick @d_samuraiNick
Lol have they named the 3 largest land owners yet or do we need to just look at history ourselves?
5:58 AM – 14 Nov 2016 · Nairobi, Kenya
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Capt Collins Wanderi @CaptWanderiCFE
Land Barons/Owners are attending the #StatehouseSummitwhile their tenants & workers are watching proceedings on TV; such is life in Kenya!
2:05 AM – 14 Nov 2016
1010 Retweets
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“We want to know whether the Ministry has been able to repossess any land that was irregularly allocated to politicians or churches, who owns the largest tracts of land in Kenya and whether Coast counties have borne the brunt of the historical land injustices,” State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu explained on Sunday during a press briefing.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who gave the event a wide berth, has in the past been forced to address rumours that his family is the largest landowner in the country.
During the 2013 Presidential debate, Martha Karua challenged Kenyatta to explain allegations that his family owns land that is equal to the size of what used to be Nyanza province.
In his rejoinder, Kenyatta clarified that his family was not the largest land owner but admitted that they owned 33,000 acres of land in Taita Taveta County
Source-kenyans.co.ke
Lands Ministry Reveals Largest Land Owners in Kenya [LIST]
