Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria has announced he is working with the Judiciary to withdraw land succession cases going on in courts.
Wa Iria said the cases have overwhelmed the courts and they will be resolved through alternative disputes resolution mechanism.
The county chief said the Judiciary is in the process of reviewing land cases to ensure they are resolved out of court and the county government is already training mediators.
He said land disputes are some of the major issues facing a majority of the families in the county and that they often result in crime.
The county last month launched a programme seeking to resolve land disputes in partnership with Mount Kenya University.
Those with land disputes are required to register, through the programme, and their cases worked on individually.
Most of the cases, he said, affect poor and old members of the community struggling with land succession and boundaries disputes and are unable to follow court proceedings or hire lawyers.
“Passing land from one generation to another has become such a painful process that in some cases has taken almost half a decade for unclear reasons," he said.
"Sometimes, the processing of titles take too long and documents get lost in the lands registry.”
He said he will deploy public surveyors to help resolve boundaries disputes that have sparked crimes like murder in the villages.
“We will fast track all these cases and pay for the charges needed, and provide legal representation where necessary,” he said.
Wa Iria expressed confidence that the cases will be resolved in six months, saying most are minor but complicated by graft and bureaucracy in the lands registry.
The programme has been taken around six subcounties, with each registering about 1,000 land dispute cases.
The governor, who was addressing locals at Ihura Stadium on Monday, further said that he is working with the county commissioner’s office to deal with brokers who act as a conduit between locals and officials.
“The main thing ailing the lands sector is graft. Land is an inherited resource so people are ready to part with anything to own it but it is the poor that suffer because the rich are able to get their way out,” he said.
He cited cases of widows being chased from their matrimonial homes after the deaths of their husbands by the in-laws.
Wa Iria also put on notice land grabbers who have encroached on public land such as road reserves.
He said in some areas, villages have become inaccessible after individuals grabbed land allocated for roads.
The county boss said the land will be repossessed after surveyors retrieve the original beacons.
In Naaro village, Kandara subcounty, a family has had to postpone the burial of their kin for over one year over lack of access road to their family.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
