QUESTION OF THE DAY
The tense atmosphere based on Land disputes has been envisaged by this paper. This is why we continued to emphasise the need for the Land Commission to commence handling cases. Unfortunately, many of these cases are already before the District Tribunals or other courts waiting for judgment. Civil society needs to be proactive in helping such matters to be settled through alternative dispute resolution measures so that they would not be politicized or given ethnic, religious and other connotations.
Citizens are citizens regardless of their ethnolinguistic and religious and other status. Is it that every land that was given by a village head to settle on could be claimed for as long as deed of gift was not prepared? If that is the case how many people will be evicted from their land?
Land grabbers are just waiting to take over any land seized by those who claim traditional ownership. Government should develop a compensation scheme to prevent people from being uprooted from land they have lived on and developed all their lives.
