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Lack of land registration and adjudication is hindering development in Turkana county due to shortage of personnel to traverse the more than 77,000 square kilometers.

Registration and adjudication is made harder because local communities lack proof of owning the land. As a result, they find it difficult to negotiate for fair compensation when their land is acquired by the government through expropriation.

This was revealed at a meeting between the Senate Lands and Environment Committee chaired by Nyandarua lawmaker John Methu and the Turkana County Executive in charge of Lands.

The County Executive Committee (CEC) in charge of Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Areas management Peter Akono said that the national government has only deployed one Land Registrar stationed at Lodwar covering both Turkana and West Pokot counties.

Akono laid bare the challenges facing the marginalized county, charging that there has been an increased pressure on competing land uses occasioned by oil and gas, national infrastructure and agriculture among others.

“An enhanced land registration programme is key to community empowerment aimed at conferring property rights and supporting private sector investment,” said Akono.

Akono further told committee chaired by Nyandarua senator John Methu that land registration should not also disrupt the community’s way of life make them vulnerable and deny them land access.

Akono argued that the use of technology is now the preferred way of dealing with land issues, adding that land registration using Geographic Information System (GIS) as a land management tool and digitizing land records.

GIS is a computer system that analyzes and displays geographically referenced information that uses data that is attached to a unique location.

According to Akono, the National Lands Commission (NLC) is supposed to issue at least 4,000 leases under the current Land regularization programme.

In addition, some 4,000 title deeds are to be issued to the land owners in Turkana under the Land regularization programme.

“Turkana County is vast and requires more resources in terms of manpower and adequate funds so that all community land within the county are registered,” said Akono.

Akono further disclosed that the issue with the boundary from neighbouring West Pokot county should be looked into because it is an emotive factor.

Article 63 (1) of the Constitution states that Community land shall vest in and be held by communities identified on the basis of ethnicity, culture or similar community of interest. The Community land consists of land lawfully registered in the name of group representatives under the provisions of any law, land lawfully transferred to a specific community by any process of law and any other land declared to be community land by an Act of Parliament.