Uhuru signs into law two bills to address food security

Uhuru signs into law two bills to address food security

President Uhuru Kenyatta Friday signed into law the Irrigation Bill and the Land Value (Amendment) Bill aimed at improving food security and proper utilization of the land resources.

The President who was speaking while at State House, Nairobi said that the new laws are aimed at respectively streamlining the development, management and regulation of irrigation and, make land rates, rent, stamp duty and compensation predictable, rational and not prone to subjective valuations.

“The Irrigation Act is intended to support sustainable food production by among other interventions establishing the National Irrigation Development Authority (NIDA) and outlining the roles of national and county governments in facilitating irrigation activities in the country,” President Kenyatta said.

According to the statement sent to newsroom, the new law mandates NIDA to develop and improve irrigation infrastructure for national or public schemes as well as provide irrigation support services to private medium and smallholder projects in collaboration with county governments.

Further, the new irrigation law empowers county governments to establish irrigation development units to meet irrigation needs of individual counties.

Besides streamlining land rates, rent, stamp duty and compensation processes, the Land Value (Amendment) Act is also intended to ease the acquisition and access to land for the implementation of public infrastructure projects.

The bill was presented to the President for signature by Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto accompanied by the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi and his Senate counterpart Ken Lusaka, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and Leader of Majority in the Senate Kipchumba Murkomen.

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President Uhuru Kenyatta food shortage National Asembly Speaker Justin Muturi

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