The government has embarked on recovering all riparian reserves in the country beginning with land around Lake Naivasha.
Under the programme by the ministries of Lands and Environment, persons who have encroached on the land will be kicked out and the land rehabilitated.
Lands CS Faridah Karoney says plans were under way to register and recover all riparian reserves.
Land around Lake Naivasha is under threat. The government will first demarcate the area before taking it over.
“We are working with the Ministry of Environment to identify and mark all riparian land, including the one in Naivasha, before reclaiming it,” she said.
Karoney at the same time put on notice staff from the ministry who collude with unscrupulous traders to sell public land.
“Once the public land is sold, the traders use them to get loans from the bank which they don’t pay and this is becoming a headache for us and the banks,” she said.
The CS noted that with the upcoming of the industrial park and dry port in Naivasha, the price of land is expected to rise.
“As promised, we are committed to issuing 100,000 title deeds in Nakuru and of that number, 30,000 will go to Naivasha where the dry port will be located,” she said.
Nakuru chief officer for land Judy Waihenya said Naivasha was leading in terms of land disputes in the county.
She said the county is keen to resolve the disputes, adding that already 6,000 titles are ready.
“The biggest challenge we have in Naivasha is the high number of landowners who only have allotment letters but we are working on this by issuing them with title deeds,” she said.
Lakeview MCA Karanja Mburu said most of the corridors leading to the lake have been blocked and grabbed by influential people in the town.
“We had embarked on the process of reopening all the grabbed corridors but we have continued to receive threats from these cartels and we are asking the CS for Lands to intervene,” he said.
