Nairobi landowners have yet to get title deeds one year after President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the issuance drive.
On May 30 last year, the President announced 50,000 titles in Jacaranda Grounds, Embakasi. He said this was the beginning of an important exercise that would lead to the issuance of 100,000 documents by last December.
MCAs say the documents issued last year were dummies and real ones were to be processed. A year has elapsed but only 1,023 are ready. One has to part with Sh30,000 to get his/hers. Many landowners have no option but to continue the long wait.
On Saturday, Governor Mike Sonko said no title deed will be issued until an audit is carried out to identify genuine owners.
It has been a roller coaster of a process, with many reasons given to justify the delay. City Hall was to handle 30,000 titles and the Ministry of Lands 70,000.
Former Lands and Urban Planning executive Charles Kerich had earlier said there was a misconception regarding the number of titles that were to be provided by the county government.
“When you talk about 50,000 title deeds launched last year, it was a collective target from the county and the Ministry of Lands. We brought our numbers, Permanent Secretary for Lands Nicholas Muraguri brought other numbers as well, and we had a wholesome target,” Kerich said.
Against his explanation, however, the national and county governments have continued to trade blames. In the midst of the confusion, the county assembly seized the chance to investigate. This has been in train since January. The Lands committee, led by Antony Kiragu, now says Uhuru was duped into presenting dummy titles.
Sh30,000 fee
During its sittings, it was revealed that the county chose to hire five external legal firms to conduct the audit at a fee, despite having a legal department. But the county administration had argued that an internal audit would have taken 10 years because of understaffing. It said the Sh30,000 fee demanded from landowners was for the hired lawyers, not the county.
Political interference has also been blamed for the delay. Some MCAs had been accused by the Sonko administration of inciting residents not to pay the legal fee. The county said some landowners refused to pay, citing instruction from their ward representatives.
When county director of survey Cecilia Wangari appeared before the county assembly panel, she admitted the process had faced obstacles. She defended the county government against blames, saying it had shown the desire to play its part while accusing the state of doing little to support the exercise.
Lands ministry officials failed to appear before the committee more than twice. They, however, honoured a summons by the National Assembly, which has been probing since March. The lawmakers started investigating following a petition by Embakasi West MP George Theuri.
For their part, the ministry officials accused City Hall of collecting cash from residents since 1993 to facilitate titles processing but having nothing to show for it. No documents have been issued, they said.
During the sitting, it was revealed that landowners could have been swindled out of Sh2.7 billion through a well-coordinated scheme between City Hall and law firms.
Theuri told the committee that more than 40,000 constituents had paid the county three times.
“The first payment of Sh30,000 per plot was done in 1993 through Musyoka Annan Advocates. The second time Sh 50,000 was paid directly to City Hall and the current one is being paid through Mbugua and Otido Advocates,” he said.
The legislator termed it unfair for residents to continue paying for documents that are never provided.
(Edited by F'Orieny)
