This question was posed to Halifa Sallah and he gave the following answer.
The population of The Gambia has shifted to the West Coast and Kanifing Municipality area. With over 1.2 million people currently resident in the West Coast Region and over 369 thousand located in the Kanifing Municipality. The peaceful method of land allocation by original settlers to the new settlers when the population was small gave rise to peaceful co-existence of traditional landowners and those they allocated land to. Villages were surrounded by thick forests and new settlers were given the task of cutting down the thick forests and establish their own settlements. They maintained their own cultures, had their own burial grounds and exercised their right to hold onto and practise their beliefs.
The sudden land rush has led to huge investments in land, thus compelling original settlers to sell their land holdings and are now resorting to the holdings that were once given to the new settlers. In some cases, a piece of land could be sold to many people, thus leading to endless land disputes. During the land rush, investors have also bought large plots of land from the original settlers to be utilised for speculative purposes, which have given rise to many forms of land disputes. The competing claims of ownership of land are giving rise to many land disputes that are sometimes being addressed by legal demolition of long-standing properties or unlawful demolition by people taking the law into their own hands.
Only a government can settle such matters. A government that exists for the people must start from the premises that every citizen is entitled to live in a home. Hence a land commission should have been able to register all land disputes and make recommendations on how some can be compensated with new allocation of land or money if they already have land to reside in. A government could allocate land to those claiming graveyards of new settlers to be their ancestral land and thus prevent community distress.
In my view, an Act of the National Assembly should establish a peace and reconciliation commission that should be able to investigate such disputes and provide immediate solutions.
