00:00The land settlement agency is responsible for regularizing people who
00:04are squatting on state lands by way of providing certificates of comfort,
00:09statutory leases, etc. At a public accounts committee hearing, Chief
00:13Executive Officer of the LSA Hazar Hussain revealed that based on a 2019 to
00:182020 survey, there are 68,000 squatters in the country of which 23,000 have
00:24applied for regularization. While this was the figure reported since 2015
00:29onward, Hussain says by now it is more than likely much higher. We don't patrol
00:34all state lands because we patrol most of our designated sites, but based on
00:38the sites we have patrolled over the years, the trend has been on average four
00:43to five hundred new squatting families per year. But the LSA cannot do anything
00:48about it. Chairman, as you're aware, the LSA has no power whatsoever to
00:53contain squatting as we speak right now and this was highlighted in the Justice
00:58Gobind judgment of 2010 where it was deemed that the LSA would have acted
01:02contrary to law up to that point in removing illegal structures. The entity
01:07responsible for that is the Commissioner of State Lands, but the Commissioner Paul
01:11O'Drake says she is facing serious constraints including acting on reports
01:16from the LSA. So I receive all his reports of all the new squatting
01:20structures. I myself am unable to do anything. I have no equipment. I don't
01:27have enough staff and this has been a problem for decades. The last time any
01:36new field staff was in 2011 and I've been begging, almost all have
01:41retired. I am down to one or two per county. In 2017, the LSA submitted a list
01:49of recommendations to the Legislative Review Committee to amend the State Land
01:54Act and the State Land Regularization of Tenure Act. Several recommendations
01:59have been made. One, very important, the definition of state land to be cleared
02:06up. Two, that the CSL, the Commissioner of State Lands, be empowered to delegate
02:12authority to the Land Supplement Agency in particular, to act as an agent of the
02:19Commissioner that contains squatting. As for a time frame as to when the country
02:24can expect further action to be taken by the LRC, in terms of legislation,
02:29Hussein could only say, quote-unquote, we know that it is actively being considered.
02:34Among other recommendations made by the LSA is the classification of squatting
02:39under the law as a criminal act. The offenses are very minimal. What we have
02:47suggested is that the squatting be treated as a civil offense and there be
02:52fines for different levels of squatting. For the first time, repeat offenders,
02:56etc. And we have suggested fines for that. The agency is also facing challenges
03:01when it comes to issuing land titles to regularized squatters, as it is in law
03:06not a landowner. What have you done about it? Sir Chairman, we have made the
03:11suggestion in writing with respect to that. One of the legislative changes for
03:15the LSA is to become a landowner, which will allow the LSA, as you pointed out,
03:19the authority to use the power of self-help to deal with squatters who
03:23come onto the lands if it becomes the lands of the LSA. And secondly, to
03:29deal with the other issues, other administrative issues. We have also
03:32suggested that the LSA becoming a landowner can then have the authority to
03:38speed up its operations. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development says it is
03:43unaware of any documentation to that effect. However, according to the
03:46Commission of State Lands, once the land settlement areas under the LSA are
03:51clearly defined, the problem will be resolved. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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