Kiambu County Government has commenced the issuance of over 50,000 title deeds to land owners mostly in settlement schemes and informal estates in the county.
Among the areas where the documents are ready include 1,000 title deeds for Ting’ang’a B in Githurai, 5,000 for the Ndeiya Settlement scheme in Lari Sub County, informal settlements in Thika town and other parts of the County.
Kiambu Governor Dr. James Nyoro said they have worked closely with the Lands Ministry and the National Lands Commission in the exercise to make sure it is above board.
He said in most areas, land disputes among owners due to double allocations, family feuds and cases of land grabbing especially in the urban centers delayed the processing of the documents.
“The processing of the Ting’ang’a B title deeds was completed five months ago and will be issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta when opening the Githurai market soon. In Ndeiya settlement scheme, they will be ready by the end of the month,” said Nyoro while issuing some title deeds in Thika town.
In Thika, the governor said title deeds will be issued to land owners in informal settlements of Umoja, Kiangombe, Madharau, Kiandutu and Misri slums through the Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Programme (KISIP).
“Surveying is being done in Kiangombe and Kiandutu slums and we hope to fast-track the exercise. In Misri, the titles are ready. Our focus is to provide land owners in the informal settlements legal ownership of land,” he said.
He added that they will also embark on road construction to ease accessibility in the slums as well as street lighting and provision of piped water to residents.
Some of the beneficiaries who received the title deeds in Umoja estate hailed the government saying they had waited for the critical documents for over three decades.
Led by Njoroge Ng’ang’a, they said lack of legitimate land ownership documents has escalated land rows within the area adding that it left loophole for land cartels to grab parcels of land belonging to them.
Phyllis Nyamweru, another resident said they will now be able to develop their plots by using the vital document to attract funding.
By Muoki Charles
