•Last month, CS Karoney urged county to waive land rates
•Nakuru governor has issued over 13,000 titles against targeted 100,000
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
The Ministry of Lands has extended by one week the ongoing land clinic in Naivasha after it emerged that hundreds of people could be locked out.
The majority of cases presented before the lands officers included double allocation and fake allotment letters.
Naivasha MP Jane Kihara, who is the patron of the programme, said the number of residents seeking services had continued to rise with over 6,000 served so far.
Kihara said last week she held a meeting with Lands CS Farida Karoney where it was agreed that the clinic would be extended.
“The ministry and my office have decided to extend the clinic for another week to give a chance to all those seeking title deeds to present their case,” she said.
Kihara termed the ongoing exercise as very fruitful adding that it was meant to resolve all land disputes in the constituency.
“The number of land disputes in Naivasha is worrying and we hope that through this exercise we shall be able to resolve them and embark on development,” she said.
Nakuru county government waived land rates by 75 per cent in a bid to collect millions owed to it by defaulters.
Karoney directed the county to waive the rates to make the ongoing land clinic and titling programme a success.
In a notice issued by the county secretary Benjamin Njoroge, the waiver would take effect from May 15 to June 21.
Njoroge was quick to note that the waiver had conditions warning defaulters that those who failed to clear the debts would see the county recover the rates plus interest.
The officer added that the county would cancel licenses granted to premises on land whose rates had not been cleared as per the law.
“If the pending land rates are not cleared, the county will withhold any development approval until full payment is made,” he warned.
Last week, Governor Lee Kinjanjui issued over 13,000 title deeds to residents of Naivasha and Gilgil in the ongoing titling programme.
The governor said the county was keen to attain their target of issuing 100,000 titles by June to address the rising cases of disputes which have stalled various development projects.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)