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| Lands CS Alice Wahome |
The government will conduct an audit of land titles in the Coast region which is inundated with absentee landlords and foreigners owning freehold titles.
Lands CS Alice Wahome said the government wants to resolve the thorny land ownership issue at the Coast region.
Admittedly, Wahome said the region has had many freehold parcels of land and some have not been adjudicated.
The CS revealed that many foreigners in the region have freehold titles in contravention of Article 65 of the constitution, which only allows non-citizens to hold leasehold titles for a maximum of 99 years.
“I must remind all the Land Registrars and Land Officers wherever they are that freehold titles under the constitution article 65 cannot be transferred or owned by foreigners. I am not specifying any group, but you must be a Kenyan to own a freehold title,” said Wahome, when she toured the Mombasa Land Registry that serves the Coast region.
She added that the Ministry of Land will take stock and audit, after which necessary disciplinary action will be taken against Officers who connive in the issuance of freehold titles.
“Where we will find people are sleeping on their job I don’t think we are going to be very nice to them because even I am not allowed to sleep on my job,” said Wahome.
The CS also appealed to the judiciary to take into account land records when delivering judgments, even when the land ministry is not a party to a case.
“We are enjoined as a party sometimes, when we have offended the law, or we have been party to some of the complaints. Generally, it is good pleading to join the Ministry of Lands in those land disputes because we are the custodians of the title documents.
“When we have not been enjoined it becomes tricky because sometimes it is deliberate so that the true records are not taken to court,” stated Wahome, urging the Judiciary to be judicious in tackling land cases.
All forged documents will be expunged from the records of the Ministry of Land. Kenyans were urged to be careful and to consult land offices before purchasing land so as not to fall prey to land fraudsters.
“The banks are also falling prey to forged documents. I asked the banks to get their Land Valuers and Lawyers to do due diligence in the interrogation of land titles,” advised Wahome.
The CS further revealed that 12.6 million titles across the country are required to be entered into the National Land Information Management System (NLIMS).
On unoccupied land, the CS said, “I think we should start recovering any land that is not occupied. As a government where we had given you a lease, you have not occupied your land for over 12 years. The law will be implemented.”
If the government does not repose the land, she said charges will apply for being absent because “land is a factor of production and we don’t want the land to be idle”.
The CS reiterated the Ministry of Land’s commitment to digitize all 49,000 land titles at the Mombasa registry.
“We have put the necessary network and infrastructure in place to start accommodating the digitization of our records. We will bring scanners, to solve challenges of lost files, missing records, missing documents,” she said.
The CS encouraged the registrar to work with efficiency and integrity as the documents are crucial as they are constitutional provisions that protect title records in terms of ownership of property.
“As a government, we want to give real-time efficiency service. The process of digitization will take three months,” said CS Wahome.
By Sadik Hassan