Nakuru county government, through the Department of Lands, Physical Planning, Housing, and Urban Development, has initiated a week-long intensive land verification exercise aimed at providing titles to plot owners of Bahati and Dundori Trading centres.
The County Executive Committee member for lands and physical planning John Kihagi said the exercise involves substantiating documents by technical officers and verifying survey ground control points by county surveyors.
These actions are integral to preparing documents for submission to the Survey of Kenya, and streamlining the titling process.
While addressing the residents of Dundori today, who turned out in large numbers, the officer emphasized the significance of the tenure regularisation process urging residents to take advantage of the opportunity for their gain.
He further highlighted that beyond preventing potential land disputes, the exercise is pivotal in bolstering the economic prospects of the area and a catalyst in development of the rural areas.
Despite a number of residents having acquired land in the late sixties through the land buying companies a number of them haven’t obtained tittle deeds to date and the local courts have numerous ongoing cases with counter appeals and injunctions.
The settlers who sold their land to the land buying companies had appealed to the British Empire to form the Settlement Trust Fund (STF) to enable the locals take loans and pay for their land.
However, a number of the land buying companies despite taking the STF loans on behalf of the members for purchasing the land and processing tittle deeds, they reneged on the agreement, hence the long disputes in courts.
The lack of title deeds has not only disadvantaged development in the rural areas but it has led to killings and kidnappings plus endless border disputes.
By Veronica Bosibori
