Africa report
Elections in Kenya: in Lamu, the issue of access to property [3/5]
Audio 02:27
Lamu.
Erik Hersman/Wikimedia Commons
By: Florence Morice Follow
3 mins
On 9th August next Kenyans are being called to ballot to elect their new president.
How are they approaching this deadline?
What conclusions do they draw from the two terms of Uhuru Kenyatta and what do they expect from his successor?
Let's go to Lamu county: as with every election, the question of access to land is one of the issues of the election in this coastal region.
Recently, thousands of Kenyans have received title deeds there.
It was a promise from the outgoing president.
But there are those left behind.
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Lidya Wangare Thuo receives us in her sewing workshop in the central alley of the town of Mpeketoni.
All smiles, she shows us the title deed that she has just received after ten years of efforts to obtain it.
“
Thanks to this title deed, I feel like a different person.
For now this land is truly mine.
I can decide to build there and start a project that could bring me money.
And change my life.
And then it's also a legacy that I can pass on to my children
, ”she confides to us.
Lydia is not fooled by the calendar.
Promised since 2013, these titles were issued just a few weeks before the presidential election, accompanied by a ceremony with great pomp.
However, she easily admits that this will influence her vote: “
Of course, it's normal when a leader does something good for you, you have to do the same in return.
»
But there are those left behind.
Lucie Wa Moyo Ndegwa owns a shop, attached to her small one-room apartment.
The roof is leaking, the walls are crumbling.
But without a title deed, she feels stuck: “
I feel like a stranger here.
I can't do any work to fit out my home, because without a title deed, I can't take out a loan.
And then with the elections, you never know who will be elected, so I'm always afraid that they will decide to kick us out, as long as I don't have a document.
»
Kenneth Mwaita coordinates the National Land Commission in the county.
He responds to criticism with an appeal for patience: “
We haven't finished issuing title deeds.
It's a process and we work on it every day.
This process continues, it does not stop with the titles that have just been issued.
»
This process is all the more important as, in recent years, pressure on the land has increased in Lamu County, following the construction of the new deep-water port.
Incidentally, many residents deplore having been robbed, as Khuzema recounts: “
It's me who lives in this plot.
They gave someone else a title and I can't even go to court because those people have money.
Before there was the port, no one wanted to come and settle in the region, but now that the project is seeing the light of day, our lands are being grabbed.
»
His plot is located in the locality of Hindi, very close to the new port.
The price of land there has been multiplied by six in recent years.
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