Land owners in Nairobi County who have allotment letters are set to be issued with leaseholds by the end of April.
This was announced by Nairobi County Lands and Housing Executive, Charles Kerich, who said that 50,000 people living in Eastlands are set to benefit from the process.
He added that out of the 50, 000 set to get the leaseholds, about 30,000 are on county property while the rest are on land that was allocated to them by the national government in the 1970s and 1980s, but were yet to receive their documents.
“We target to end the documentation process and preparation of leases this month. Residents have, however, been slow in bringing their essential documents like the original allotment letters or a sale agreement between the original allotee and the current holder,” said Mr Kerich.
COLLECTION CENTRES
Dandora, Kayole, Umoja, Kariobangi and Mathare North have been set up by the county as document collection centres.
Mr Kerich said that thousands of land owners in the county were yet to get leaseholds despite receiving land allotment letters from the defunct Nairobi City Council and the then Nairobi City Commission over 30 years ago.
He blamed vested interests and inefficiency by previous leadership at City Hall for the delay in issuance of leaseholds to land owners in Nairobi.
“Lack of political goodwill and failure by leaders in the past is the reason the titles were never issued but we are committed to resolve this problem once and for all,” said Mr Kerich.
He said that the county has, however, set in motion the process of issuance of the lease holds calling for the holders of the allotment letters to avail the documents to enable the county government expedite the process.
DIGITISATION
The Lands CEC said that the county was using sub county administrators to mobilise the residents and has also commissioned a group of lawyers to work on the process.
He pledged to facilitate the process to ensure its timely completion, adding that plans were at full gear to initiate a digitisation process of all county land records besides setting up a modern lands registry for Nairobi.
“With the issuance of title deeds, plot owners can borrow money from banks to develop low cost housing to bridge the housing gap,” he said.
WAIVER
Recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Ministry of Lands to work closely with the county government in the issuance of the documents with the President’s directive seeing the Survey of Kenya waiving survey fees for the project areas.
Nairobi County staff have been undertaking a rigorous process to verify the authenticity of the documents provided by the residents, to ensure only genuine land owners get title deeds.
Embakasi North Sub County administrator Stephen Kosgei said the area has a unique problem of condominium properties, where up to four properties are constructed on one small plot that has not been subdivided.
The title document therefore has to capture the details of all the property owners on the one plot, taking into consideration the common areas.
“This is a challenge that appears unique to this area. I am appealing to the lawyers who are involved with the titling process to give us legal advice on how to handle this,” Mr Kosgei said.