President Uhuru Kenyatta and Governor Mike Sonko will on Wednesday issue 50,000 title deeds to landowners in Eastlands, Nairobi.
This will come as a relief to the residents who have lived in constant fear of their property being grabbed due to lack of the crucial land ownership document.
Lands executive Charles Kerich said the titles are ready and that the head of state is set to issue them to residents on Wednesday.
“It has been a very intensive exercise that involved the national government, county government, sub-county administration and the Survey of Kenya,” Kerich said.
“This is a promise we gave and the target we set. We are happy that we have hit the target and the residents will now feel that sense of ownership,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Despite the value of the land having gone up in the city, most of landowners in Eastland – Nairobi’s most populate area – have not benefitted from their property as they do not have titles.
They cannot use the land as collateral to secure a loan from a bank, for example, due to lack of the document.
Most of them do not also pay land rates for the same reason as the county requires a title as a proof of ownership.
Most of the landowners bought the parcels from the land buying companies that only issued them with allotment letters. Banks do not accept allotment letters as proof of land ownership.
Those who will benefit come from Dandora, Tassia, Kayole, Umoja, Buru Buru, and Kariobangi among others.
Kerich said that the county has been sensitizing landowners to submit their documents to City Hall for processing of title deeds and has even waived the fees.
“Our trucks have been moving all over the city encouraging landowners without titles to submit their documents so that we can process titles for them. The progress has been good but we urge those still remaining to bring their papers,” Kerich said.
Kerich said they would continue to process more titles with a view of hitting 100, 000 mark by December.
Processing of titles for landowners in the city is one of the core mandates of the Nairobi regeneration team that was appointed by President Kenyatta to fix Nairobi’s problems.
