The Government will revoke title deeds for illegally acquired parcels of land in Nyandarua, to safeguard land earmarked for public utilities.
Lands Principal Secretary (PS), Nicholas Muraguri, said that the government was keen on ensuring all public utility land everywhere in the country is protected.
Muraguri was speaking in Ol-Kalou town in Nyandarua County, when issuing title deeds to residents of colonial villages.
“We are here to continue the President’s legacy of issuance of one million title deeds. We will deregister all title deeds for illegally acquired and grabbed land countrywide.
“Since he assumed office, President Uhuru Kenyatta has given over six million title deeds. This is way above his target of one million title deeds.
“This is the largest number of title deeds issued and has surpassed the number of all the titles issued by former presidents combined. Out of the six million title deeds issued, over 80,000 title deeds are for Nyandarua County,” Muraguri said.
The PS also promised to move the Land Registry of Nyandarua, from Nyahururu to Ol Kalou town. The new Lands Registry premises are already up and ready for occupation at Ol Kalou town.
Muraguri issued 175 title deeds out of the over 4000 title deeds. He also acknowledged that his office was aware Ol Kalou township titles that have been having disputes and he promised to solve the stand-off before elections.
The PS also said that the President had vowed that all colonial villages in Nyandarua, Kirinyaga and Nyeri, be registered and title deeds issued before his tenure in office winds up in August this year.
Muraguri also lauded Nyandarua residents as he said that he encountered no wrangles during allocation and processing of title deeds for the region compared to other areas.
National Lands Commissioner, Alister Murimi, said that it was his role to ensure land regularization and formalization of tenure to ensure colonial villages’ title deeds are documented.
He expressed his gratitude to everyone who had played a part in ensuring that the issuance of title deeds to the residents of colonial villages had been achieved.
“We started this Nyandarua program in November 2021 and today we have 3500 letters of allotment and we will give titles to people in Nyandarua before elections.
“I am happy to report that the National Government and the County Government can work together to ensure the process is a success,” said Murimi.
Nyandarua Governor, Francis Kimemia, said that he was happy to see that the people living in colonial villages received title deeds during his tenure in office.
“Nyandarua as a whole has colonial villages in every Sub-County. I am very happy that every person living in those villages, can now authoritatively say that they own the place.
“I want to discourage people from selling their parcels of land, but instead to use the titles to secure bank loans to develop more on those lands,” said Kimemia.
The Governor also appealed to the PS to ensure all the pending 90,000 titles that are being processed in the whole of Nyandarua are issued to the owners on time.
He also promised to source funds through the World Bank, to upgrade the colonial villages into urbanized villages.
“Apart from title deeds, we will improve the houses, sewerage, electricity and water.
“We also need to have some bigger land to expand the villages. We need the government to give us some more land to expand the colonial villages and make them modernized,” added Kimemia.
Kimemia also appealed to the PS to help settle the integrated Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in Nyandarua.
At the same time, he asked the PS to settle the Mohu Farm stalemate in Ndondori, to ensure the occupants of the land get title deeds.
Kimemia also thanked the government for issuance of 2,440 title deeds in Ol Kalou Township out of the 2,974 plots. This happened after a land task force was formed at the county level, to resolve the stalemate that has been in and out of courts in Ol Kalou town for over three decades.
He assured the PS that the 409 plots with disputes in Ol Kalou town that they shall use the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, to settle the cases so that the owners can start developing the plots.
Several residents expressed their joy after receiving the title deeds.
By Antony Mwangi
