Brokers take over Machakos Land registry — lawyers

The Law Society of Kenya, South Eastern branch, on Wednesday said brokers control the Machakos Lands offices’ registry while advocates clerks are ridiculed and ignored.

The branch’s mandate is to address welfare and practice issues touching on advocates practicing within the region covered by the branch; Machakos, Kitui, Makueni, Kajiado and Garissa counties.

“This is a thorn in the whole issue. Brokers walk in and out of the Lands registry offices at will and in minutes, they walk out with the documents they had brought to be worked on. This is uncalled for and a serious issue,”  branch chairman Mutua Makau said.

The advocates presented their petition to the Machakos Lands registrar Elizabeth Cheruiyot who said they will go through their grievances and get back to them.

“We had deliberated with LSK on some of the issues before. We will look into the issues they have raised in the memorandum and get back to them soonest,” Cheruiyot said.

They said accessing the registry had become a problem to them due to the brokers.

“It’s full of brokers, long queues unlike previous years,” Makau said.

Makau said their clerks had job IDs, but were still shunned.

“As advocates, some of us are also denied access to Land’s Registry inside office to see the Land Registrar yet the only time an advocate will go to the registry is when something important which must have needed his presence comes up,” he said.

The advocates joined their colleagues in national protests against land offices across the country on January 19. They raised the same issues alongside others.

They also claimed unnecessary rampant loss of documents in land’s registries

“It has become like normal to submit your documents and when you attend for follow up, they can’t be traced, especially land searches,” Makau said.

He said at times they submit documents for transfer with the original title deeds and they get lost.

“Consequently, you can’t move a step further in absence of the documents lost by the registry staff,” he said.

He said they were at times advised to start afresh the documents’ registration once they got lost, a process that takes months to years.

They claimed it had become common to reject documents at the registry for minor reasons.

The advocates also complained about land searches.

“At times it takes several months, yet the lands personnel says three days are sufficient to have the results,” Makau said.

Makau said it was a mandatory requirement to have a copy of title deed to have land search done, yet it was an issue they addressed in April 2021 but nothing changed.

He said some situations may not allow them. for instance, if a title deed was never collected from lands offices, if the land is subject of an intended or pending court case, family land with  issues and conflicts and succession cases needing to be filed and lastly if there is an intended purchase.

The lawyers said they should be given ease access to see the land registrar since they appear at the registry once in a while when their clerks were unable to finalise the Lands registry work.

“The Lands office clerks should stop manning the registry with non – existent laws and just do their work. Some are even acting with so much authority you wonder if the Land registry has a unique service charter,” Makau said.

“We need the above quoted requirements not based on any law abolished as they are impeding justice. We need good public relations at the registry,” Makau said.

They said the registry should have minimum of nine land registrars authorised to sign documents as opposed to the current existing three. They also demanded as many clerks and subordinate staff as possible.

The advocates also recommended the decongestation of Machakos Land Registry by opening branches in Mavoko, Kangundo and Mwala and Yatta. The Yatta registry, they said had been gazette but hadn’t been opened.

(Edited by V. Graham)