Beware of land grabbers whose job is to move around the country looking for idle land which they can claim ownership to, President Uhuru Kenyatta warned yesterday.

Uhuru, who kicked off the latest phase of the national title deeds programme that will see the immediate issuance of one million title deeds to land owners across the country, singled out Nairobi and Mombasa counties as the worst affected.

“There are those people who are used to stealing public resources. They used to move around the country, be it Nairobi or Mombasa, to look for idle land. And where they get it, they claim ownership to it. You all know about it, but now this is in the past,” said Uhuru. He told Kenyans to elect leaders who will continue with the reforms he started and not those who will take Kenya back to the old days.

“We must continue to pray and remain confident and work towards getting an administration that will deal with accelerated reforms in the land sector. I pray to you that those who you elect should not take us back from where we came from,” said Uhuru.

Start of programme

While issuing 200 title deeds to signify the start of the programme at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Uhuru directed the Cabinet Secretaries for Land and Interior to come up with a programme that will involve other Cabinet Secretaries in the issuance of the balance of the ready title deeds.

“Today, we are launching and flagging off the issuance of one million out of six million title deeds that are ready across the registries in the various counties.

“The programme should be executed expeditiously, such that before sunset on the eighth of July, 2022 the balance of the one million title deeds will have been conveyed to their holders,” he directed.

Also, the President highlighted several achievements under the reforms in the land sector, noting that the National Titling Programme, which his administration introduced in 2013, has helped in processing and issuing title deeds to many citizens.

“As part of this programme, we established the National Titling Centre, the Rapid Titling Initiative, Land Clinics and formed links with both land buying companies and county governments. These progressive measures were buttressed by enhanced recruitment of technical staff and deployment of other critical resources, including motor vehicles and survey equipment,” he said.

The Head of State noted that the national title deeds issuance programme has made it possible for Kenyans living in marginalised areas like Samburu, Isiolo and Marsabit counties to legally own land, empowering them to develop economically.

“I am honoured to have been the President who handed over a title deed to the first woman land owner in Marsabit; a feat that was unthinkable a decade ago when it was culturally held that women could not hold a title in land,” the President said.

Uhuru said that under the National Titling Programme, all beneficiaries living in former colonial villages such as those in Nyandarua were issued with title deeds, while the problem of long and protracted cases in group ranches was addressed.

“This programme has brought hope where there was fear and despair; we have healed wounds and resolved the phenomena of protracted and acrimonious land disputes across the country; in places such as Kihiu Mwiri in Murang’a, Nyakinyua in Trans Nzoia, Mikanjuni in Kilifi, group ranches in Kajiado, Narok and Samburu,” said President Kenyatta.

The President added that, through the programme, the Government has been able to secure the country’s natural resources and heritage sites.

 “We have secured our natural resources and heritage sites like Mau Forest, Nairobi National Park, City Park and Maasai Mara Game Reserve, through the issuance of title deeds,” he added.

Titling school land

The Government is also documenting land belonging to public institutions, while the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, working with the education sector, has succeeded in titling parcels of land belonging to 20,000 schools and surveying of 32,000 public schools.

President Kenyatta said his commitment to establishing an efficient, transparent and accountable land administration and management system saw the development and launch of the National Land Information Management System (NLIMS,) commonly referred to as “ArdhiSasa”, which has streamlined electronic land transactions.

He cited the example of drastic reduction in the time taken to conduct land transactions from a minimum of six months per transaction to 48 hours, through ArdhiSasa as some of the achievements. The Head of State pointed out that the 2016 Community Land Act, enables local communities to legally register and own communal lands.

He said that previously an estimated 3.5 million people had been unable to register their communal lands covering roughly 150,000 square miles or 67 per cent of Kenya’s landmass but with the new Act they have been able to successful legally own their land.

“Following this progressive legislation, we have been able to issue title deeds to group ranches in Laikipia, Samburu, Kajiado, West Pokot and Taita Taveta, an endevour which has uplifted over 500,000 people,” President Kenyatta said.

He disclosed that the national Government has been able to support devolved units and decentralised land administration services by gazetting additional 10 registries in Kajiado West, Kajiado South (Loitoktok), Yatta, Mutomo, Samburu, Malindi, Ruiru, Tigania West, Marimanti and Kiritiri, bringing the total number of registries across the country to an historic high of 67.

“Further, we are in the process of constructing 10 additional registries to promote efficient delivery of services in Hola, Kitui, Mbeere, Bomet, Ol Kalou, Naivasha, Nandi, Ruiru, Laikipia, and Samburu. The construction of these new registries will go a long way in facilitating the decentralisation of the Ministry’s services,” the President said.

Lands CS Farida Karoney said her ministry has been able to achieve the targets set by the President through the implemented reforms that have facilitated registration of 6,1000,945 new title deeds.

 “ This is a very significant number because you’ll be happy to note that the colonial government and our first three administrations registered 6 million so actually it surpassed the 6million registered in the past 100 years,” said the lands CS.

Also present at the event were Head of Public Service Dr. Joseph Kinyua, Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiang’i (Interior) and Eugene Wamalwa (Defence) among other senior Government officials.