Municipality of Hola with support from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is developing its local physical and land development plan.
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement in Hola Tana River County Secretary Joshua Jara said the land use plan will specify what can be done and what cannot be done. It will consist of a survey on land use and designation of public, residential and commercial.
The County Secretary said Tana River is sparsely populated and didn’t meet the threshold for a municipality but there is a law that all county headquarters be given municipality status. “Hola Municipality didn’t meet the threshold of 250,000 people,” he said.
Hola Municipality covers a total of 30-kilometer radius of land starting at Kalkacha in the Hola – Garissa road junction to Wenje division to the south and border to Bura sub-county to the north.
The County Secretary challenged the residents to come up with land plan ideas he termed the development of the municipality as an opportunity to create prosperity for future generations.
He said, “The overarching aim is to improve the people’s livelihoods through development. Currently, there are no access roads in most estates in Hola. The county government has established playgrounds in Mikunduni, Chewani and Lenda.”
Tana River Land and Agriculture CECM Mwanajuma Mabuke said the stakeholders’ deliberations will lead to the development of an integrated urban spatial development plan of Hola municipality which will feed into the county spatial plan.
She said the percentage of Land ownership with a title is five percent mostly ranches and there is a scramble for Tana land in the guise of setting up factories or farming by unscrupulous land grabbers masquerading as investors but they haven’t been able to convince the county administration how residents will benefit.
As part of urbanization efforts, Governor Dhadho Godhana administration came up with an eco-village programme that aims to move residents from flood-prone areas. It has drilled boreholes to encourage the residents to move into Handampia, Baomo and Mwina clusters.
Ibrahim Salah, Chairman of the Land Committee in the County Assembly assured the stakeholders that the assembly will hasten the approval process of the plan once it is completed.