Some 90,696 land owners in Kisumu County are set to obtain their title deeds following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to distribute one million of these documents across the nation.
This was revealed by State Department for ICT and Innovation Principal Secretary, Jerome Ochieng’ when he oversaw the issuing of titles to residents in Nyando Sub-county on Friday.
Seme Sub County will have the highest beneficiaries with 34,000 title deeds processed followed by Nyando at 23,000 while Nyakach Sub County has the least number at 900.
Kisumu East will have 12,000 titles while Kisumu West and Central will each have 11,000 titles respectively. Muhoroni Sub County will get about 10,000 titles.
PS Jerome said President Uhuru’s administration had processed six million title deeds to tackle land ownership issues in the country.
The distribution exercises which started four weeks ago, he said, will see the Luo Nyanza region alone bag over 300,000 title deeds, 30 per cent of the total batch.
Homa Bay, Siaya and Migori Counties will get 11,000, 150,000 and 58,000 deeds respectively.
“President Uhuru’s administration prioritised land reforms since it is a major element in economic development through the redistribution of resources to improve the livelihood of wananchi,” said PS Jerome.
He assured residents that with the document, they were assured of full ownership of their pieces of land.
Jerome further cautioned the new land owners to be transparent with their family members to prevent disputes and urged them to use the titles to develop and improve their living standards.
“Do not rush to dispose of your land by selling. Be patient until the value of the land is high for you to get better proceeds,” he advised, adding that they should refrain from the habit of selling the same piece of land to a number of unsuspecting clients.
The state official further cautioned the locals to be wary of land brokers who might shortchange them by undervaluing their plots.
At the same time, he called on the chiefs and assistant chiefs in the area to support the community members by ensuring issues of title deeds are properly managed.
Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o while speaking at the same event, joined the locals in thanking President Kenyatta for the award of the titles that stamp authority in the ownership of their lands.
“Title deed is a great award from the Head of State to Kenyans. With this document you now have the security of tenure to obtain loans from the bank for personal development,” said Prof Nyong’o.
Nyong’o said the distribution exercise would go on across the sub counties until all the beneficiaries get their titles.
Nyando Deputy County Commissioner Chaka Nyamawi while representing the Kisumu County Commissioner Josephine Ouko at the event reiterated that possessing a title deed is a milestone that can turn around the lives of the individuals but at the same time if not well managed it can precipitate family chaos.
Eunice Mueni, the Lands Administrator for Nyando, Muhoroni and Nyakach Sub Counties urged the landowners to liaise with the Sub County land offices whenever they sell land or to address land disputes.
By Robert Ojwang’ and Chris Mahandara
