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News
Friday, February 13, 2004
Group wants land lease deals
halted
By ODHIAMBO ORLALE
and TONY KAGO
Delegates have appealed to the
Government to freeze the renewal of all land leases with
multinational companies until the new constitution is enacted.
The delegates accused a powerful
politician of supporting Magadi Soda Company to have its 99-year
lease, signed between the colonial government and the Maasais in
Kajiado District, renewed in an underhand manner.
They also accused the unnamed
politician of frustrating their earlier plans to have three of the
13 technical committees at the national constitutional conference,
go on a fact-finding tour of the firm, located about 150km from
Nairobi, yesterday.
In a statement, they said they
"view with grave concern the exploitation of the national and
public resources under the current constitution with grave concern."
The three are lands and
environment, public finance and public service and leadership and
integrity committees, which had completed their mandate last week.
Magadi Soda Company is Africa’s
leading soda ash and salt extracting firm, with a turnover of
30,000 tonnes a year. It is utilising 24 out of the 222,788 acres
surrounding the salt lake.
The 629 delegates will regroup in
the plenary next week to adopt the final draft before it is passed
to Parliament.
Link :
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/Today/News/News130220044.html
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