Nakuru County Assembly wants the government to lift caveats imposed on land in some parts of the devolved unit over 20 years ago.
The Assembly has appealed to President William Ruto to order the lifting of the caveats.
Mauche Member of County Assembly Moses Koros said lifting of the caveats would enable landowners in Njoro, Molo, Kuresoi South and Kuresoi North Sub-Counties to access loans and other facilities.
Mr. Koros indicated that the caveats had reduced land owners to abject poverty despite having title deeds for the parcels.
The MCA in a debate session chaired by County Speaker Joel Karuri Maina also pleaded for the issuance of title deeds to hundreds of families that had not acquired land ownership documents in various parts of the devolved unit.
“Affected residents cannot do anything with the land since the title deeds are mere papers due to the caveat,” Mr. Koros told the House.
Turi MCA John Mwangi stated that the caveat imposed on the parcels of land has created uncertainty over ownership of land among affected communities.
“They can’t develop the land, and they have lagged behind economically. We’re appealing to President Ruto to intervene and safeguard the dignity of the families,” Mr Mwangi said.
He further called for the harmonisation of levies charged to public service vehicles and transporters ferrying passengers and goods through various sub counties for ease of doing business.
Mwangi complained that matatus pay for multiple PSV stickers in various sub-counties.
“Some of the 11 sub-counties have been issuing multiple PSV stickers that hurt businesses as matatus have to adjust pricing to factor in the levying. If a PSV vehicle has paid for a sticker in its sub-county of origin it should not be charged for the same in another sub-county,” he said.
He also stated that transporters need not pay cess money in another Sub-County after having paid the same in their source sub-county.
“When a trader is transporting products for cross-sub county trading, you find that the sub-counties one traverses collect revenue in terms of cess. We need sensitisation on what the levies mean to products and businesses so that they acknowledge levies from the source sub-county and end the multiple taxations,” Mwangi said.
He noted that the informal public transport industry employs as many people directly as the government and the formal private sector combined.
Lake View Ward Representative Alex Mbugua informed the House that overreliance by residents, in Naivasha and Gilgil Sub-Counties particularly in Longonot and Maai Mahiu on underground water sources, exposed them to a high risk of suffering from dental fluorosis and crippling skeletal deformities.
He said plans to increase the number of alternative fluoride-free water sources in the devolved unit should be fast tracked.
Mr. Mbugua pointed out that there were high concentrations of fluoride in the county’s boreholes, sometimes way above the 1.5 milligrams per litre allowed by the World Health Organisation.
The MCA noted that the situation is worse in Naivasha, where boreholes are the main source of water, with a recent study done on the area’s boreholes last year indicating that most of the private boreholes in Naivasha have fluoride levels way above the recommended 1.5 mg/litre.
According to the study commissioned by the county government, fluoride levels range between 2.15mg/litre to as high as 6.5 mg/litre in the 15 boreholes sampled during the analysis carried out at the water quality testing laboratory.
The Naivasha Water and Sanitation Company Limited (Naivawasco) gets its water from 13 boreholes, located in six production sites. It serves a population of about 170, 000 out of the 198,444 people, according to the 2019 census.
Mbugua urged Governor Susan Kihika’s administration to continue supporting initiatives towards developing water distribution networks that include water kiosks fitted with defluoridation filters using “local bone char technology.”
By Anne Mwale
