The Turkana government has received land registry equipment through the support of the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
For the last four years, FAO and the EU under the Land Governance Programme have made significant progress on the sensitisation of communities in Turkana.
The communities have been sensitised to the benefits of securing community land for income generation and conflict resolution.
Cabinet Administrative Secretary for Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning Alex Mburu on Monday said the equipment will facilitate the registration of land for the benefit of the community. He spoke during the handover of the equipment at the Lands office in Lodwar.
“We have received registration equipment which to support the digitalisation platform in matters of land registration, from FAO and EU development partners,” he said.
Mburu said the equipment will enable ease of securing land tenure, particularly through registration and decentralisation of services.
He added that the equipment will reduce the expenses incurred by citizens in accessing these critical services.
Arid and semi-arid lands also require title deeds and the equipment will fast-track the process.
The CAS said they want to apply the community land law, 2016, which applies to ASALs.
“We have realised that Turkana people thrive on pastoralism, thus we cannot afford to divide the land too much because they will likely lose grazing lands.
“The Ministry of Lands wants to digitalise its land registration services, the efforts will fast-track the process of issuing land title deeds to the community,” he said.
FAO country representative Carolla Makovi said they handed the land registries to the county and national governments to facilitate services to the community.
She said land is the foundation of any sustainable development and the registration equipment will be a major development for the community.
“Food security and nutrition is the priority of FAO and therefore you cannot produce when you don’t have land. If you have land that’s secure then you can produce.
"If women have a right to own land then they will contribute to taking this country far in terms of development,” she said.
Makovi said the cost of equipment for the 11 counties is Sh50 million and the equipment includes plotter, server, computer desktops, heavy-duty photocopier, handheld GPS devices and scanner.
EU acting representative Katrin Hagemann said they are supporting land governance in 11 counties. Phase two of the programme will involve many counties.
“Phase one focuses on Asal regions to support devolution because the EU believes devolution takes services closer to people and that’s why we are quite interested in supporting land governance,” she said.
Hagemann said they aim to resolve land conflicts, ensure investment happens and reduce cases of corruption.
Turkana deputy governor Peter Lotethiro, while receiving the equipment, said it will help residents acquire title deeds.
Lotethiro said the title deeds is a boost to the community as they will be able to access bank loans for their businesses.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
