We will not give in to demands by absentee landlords, Ruto says

By  Winnie Atieno

Correspondent

Nation Media Group

President William Ruto has revealed that some absentee landlords are demanding billions of shillings in compensation for land earmarked for the resettlement of squatters at the Coast, warning that his administration will not be forced to pay what he described as prohibitive prices.

The President said the landlords, whom he did not name, were using title deeds to evict residents and infringe on their rights while demanding huge compensation from the Government.

“We will not give in to the greed of the few absentee landlords who continue to frustrate our efforts to resolve historical land injustices at the Coast. You cannot blackmail us, we will not allow it. I told you we sit and discuss, and I pay you off, but we will not allow evictions from those lands,” he said on Friday at the Mama Ngina Waterfront Grounds in Mombasa County, where he issued 5,000 title deeds to residents.

“Kuna watu, mabwenyenye wajeuri ambao nimezungumza nao lakini kwa sababu ya madharau na kiburi wamekwama eti wanataka kuwafurusha wananchi kutoka kwa mashamba ambao wananchi kwa sasa. Wacha niwaeleze, nyinyi mabwenyenye, wajeuri na madharau chuma chenu kimotoni. Hamuwezi kusababisha watu wa pwani waendelee kuishi katika hali ya usquota na nyinyi mko na hati miliki mlizozipata kwa njia ambazo si za halali” he said in Swahili.

He said the state will stand with the squatters and will not allow any evictions from lands belonging to absentee landlords. He said the majority of the absentee landlords are from Mombasa, saying his administration will not pay the billions they are demanding.

Dr Ruto questioned how some of the titles were acquired and challenged their holders to explain their origin and how much they paid to acquire them.

He vowed to stand with Kenyans in the fight to regain their land rights, saying no resident should be evicted from land they have occupied and called home.

The titles issued in Mombasa cover seven settlements: Dongo Kundu (1,659), Mwakirunge (1,400), Kwa Punda (636), Ex-Waitiki (470), Kwa Hakatsa (389), Mafisini (200) and Mikindani (189).

The President said Kenyans would no longer have to live in fear of eviction, linking the title-deed programme to his 2022 campaign pledge to address the Coast’s longstanding land question.

“Our people at the Coast did not realise full freedom in 1963 when Kenya gained Independence because they were denied their land rights. This week alone, 300,000 residents at the Coast will move from being squatters to land owners. I will be back in two months to bring more titles. We must bring equity in Kenya,” he said.

Dr Ruto said his administration had a solution to what he described as the region’s colonial land question, which he said had left generations of Coast residents living as squatters.

“When I took over the leadership, in 2023 I tasked Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, Cabinet Secretaries Hassan Joho and Salim Mvurya to work alongside MPs, governors and senators from the region to address the challenges,” he said.

The President said the Government had allocated a total of Sh10 billion in the 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years to address the squatter problem, including buying land from absentee landlords.

He said land disputes had contributed to poverty, conflict, evictions and displacement in the region for decades.

“Residents must also feel like they are part of this country and own their own land. This is historical. I am very proud that from Monday this week, we started the process of issuing title deeds in this region to benefit the people who for a very long time have remained half Kenyans because they have lived as squatters,” he said.

Dr Ruto also recalled his 2022 campaign pledge to address the Coast land question.

“During campaigns in 2022, I pledged that I would offer a solution to the land question in this region. Land issues brought poverty, squatters, fighting, evictions, and deaths. That is why I promised to put an end to it,” he said.

The President said the Government was targeting the issuance of about 500,000 title deeds across the Coast by December.

He said 300 land officers had been deployed to accelerate surveying and processing of the documents, while Sh10 billion had been set aside to support the exercise and compensate absentee landlords.

“No one should ask you for a shilling, the title deeds are ready. A promise is a pledge; I had promised to end this challenge, and here I am with the solution,” he said.

Among those who benefited from the title-deed programme in the region are members of the Wapemba community, who were recently granted Kenyan citizenship.

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