The Ministry of Lands will issue 6000 title deeds to land owners in Uasin Gishu County by the end of this week, Land Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney has said.
The CS said they were racing against time to ensure that over 1 million title deeds that have been lying in land registries across the country are issued to the owners before the end of July as directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Speaking on Wednesday at Burnt Forest while launching the issuance of the title deeds in Uasin Gishu County, Karoney called on land owners to take advantage of the President one-month moratorium by collecting their land titles.
“The reason why we have so many title deeds remaining uncollected in our land registries is that land owners say they don’t have the money to pay for them, but the President has now directed that the title deeds be issued free until the end of July,” she said.
“You only have one month to get the titles free of charge, please take advantage by turning up to collect the documents from land officers and national government administrative officers who will come to your localities to issue the titles,” urged the CS.
Karoney, who was accompanied by among others, Uasin Gishu County Commissioner, Stephen Kihara, however asked those who will be issued with the documents to ensure they protect and keep them safe.
“Our worry is that once we issue the title deeds some men will sell their land at the expense of their families, some will even sale them in bars, and in the end, their families will be left land and reduced to squatters, which is unfortunate,” she said.
It is important for us to realize that the land we have is not expanding, but the population is increasing and demand for land will continue to increase, if we dispose of what we have we shall end up being squatters, and this is not the intention of the government, she added.
She further advised married women to be focal and ensure their husbands don’t sell family land without their consent, informing them that the law now allows married women to be enjoined in their husbands’ title deeds.
“The only thing you need is to walk into the lands registrar’s office and ask that you be enjoined in your husband’s title deed, this is one way of ensuring that the titles deeds are protected for the future of your children.
The CS also asked families whose land title holders have passed on to file for succession observing that the challenge the lands ministry has had in trying to issue some of the title deeds was that many families have yet to do succession after the original owner passes on.
“We will not issue you with the title deed of deceased family members until the succession is done and completed,” she added.
On election, Karoney asked the residents of Uasin Gishu to maintain peace during and after the August 9 General Elections.
“On August 10th, after the election, we shall remain as Kenyans, nobody is leaving Kenya, so there is no need for people to fight or insult each other because of elections. Your vote is your secret, and being a democratic country, you have a constitutional duty to go to the polling station on August 9 to cast your vote secretly to whomever you want to choose and go home to continue with your chores,” she advised.
Among those to benefit from the issuances of the title deeds are members of Nyakinyua/Jogoo who said they have waited for the land document for many years with the majority of the original members having passed on.
Other schemes that were issued with the title deeds on Wednesday are Mvita, Kaptagat, Kondoo, Bindura, Kahungura, Kuinet B, Sugutek, and Baharini.
By Kiptanui Cherono
