- Siaya County has the highest number of titles to be issued at 150,652, followed by Meru with 106,893 and Machakos 92,606.
- Uhuru singled out Nairobi and Mombasa counties as the worst affected.
Image: NAIROBI METROPOLITAN SERVICES
President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed various ministries to complete the issuing of one million title deeds in three weeks.
Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua instructed all Cabinet Secretaries to oversee the distribution of a million out of six million titles processed during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure, by July 20, 2022.
Kinyua also listed the schedule of the counties allocated to each individual CS together with the summary of the title deeds to be issued.
The Ministries are required to liaise with the respective Regional Commissioners to organise the requisite meetings for issuance and file returns of all titles issued to Kinyua by July 21.
According to the schedule, Siaya County has the highest number of titles to be issued at 150,652, followed by Meru with 106,893 and Machakos 92,606.
“In this regard, it is directed that the issuance of title deeds be concluded before 20th July 2022. Ministries liaise with the respective regional commissioner to organize the requisite events and the ministerial returns of all titles be filled to the undersigned by 21st July 202,” read Kinyua’s letter.
The Coast region was assigned Cabinet Secretaries Najib Balala, Farida Karoney and Amina Mohamed while Eugene Wamalwa and George Magoha will take care of Western Kenya and Monica Juma, Fred Matiang’i, Margaret Kobia and Peter Munya will be in Eastern.
Joe Mucheru, James Macharia and Mutahi Kagwe will coordinate the exercise in the Central region as Keriako Tobiko, Betty Maina and Simon Chelugui will oversee Rift Valley.
Uhuru while rolling out the title deed issuance a week ago, alleged that there were land grabbers whose job was to move around looking for idle land to claim its ownership.
Uhuru, who started the latest phase of the national title deeds issuance programme, singled out Nairobi and Mombasa counties as the worst affected.
The documents are being distributed to Kenyans who have suffered long and protracted land disputes across the country and are part of Uhuru’s administration's strategy to end historical land injustices in the country.
The government began the National Land Titling Programme in 2013 as part of the Jubilee manifesto to restore the dignity of a majority of Kenyan families who have struggled to get titles for their land.
“As an answer to the land question in Kenya, the Administration has realized accelerated reforms in the land sector and scaled up the issuance of title deeds by issuing six million title deeds compared to 5.6million title deeds issued by the colonial government and all the past administrators combined,” the memo added.
The programme has enabled the government to secure the country’s natural resources and heritage sites like the Mau forest, Nairobi National Park, City Park, Maasai Mara Game Reserve and others that were at the risk of being grabbed.
Amongst the recipients of the documents in this phase are women living in marginalised areas such as Samburu, Isiolo and Marsabit counties, families living in former colonial villages such as Nyandarua and the victims of land cases in group ranches across the country.
They include; Kihiu Mwiri in Murang’a, Embakasi Ranching in Nairobi, Nyakinyua in Trans Nzoia, Mikanjuni in Kilifi.