It will take the new environment and land CECM three years to register all community land that are at the verge of being grabbed by private investors as locals continue being evicted day and night in Kwale.
After five years of interacting with various stakeholders in the land sector and national government, Saumu Mahaja has learnt the art of tackling historical land issues and one of the ways is registering those land.
She told the vetting panel that in her second term she will tighten her belt on addressing matters of land injustices through collaboration with the National Land Commission and court system.
In Kinango she said it is one of the areas that has been adversely affected by matters of land since a lot of land is not adjudicated.
“We did adjudication in Mwavumbo for about two years with around Sh30 and Sh40 million and it was done, I believe with enough funding we are good to go and address a lot of issues facing Kwale people,” she said.
Her challenge during the first five years, she said, was spreading the little allocated budget to solve land issues, noting that she has devised a new way of doing things.
“This round I will focus on one issue like Mwavumbo land so that we can finish and move on to another one, especially adjudicating land is the biggest problem that needs to be addressed,” she said.
She called on locals to give priority on the matters of land as they give their views for the county budgeting process saying by doing so her office will be able to address many pending land injustices cases.
She said that currently Kwale has about 12 unregistered community land noting that her focus will be first securing them through adjudication to keep off land grabbers.
Issues of increased charcoal burning that has led to deforestation in the areas of Kinango and LungaLunga also came up during the vetting as she was asked how best she will address it.
Saumu blamed absentee landlords in most of the areas where charcoal burning is taking place adding that she is focused on addressing the matter.
