Cabinet Secretary for Lands Alice Wahome has revealed the ministry’s plan to process and issue at least 420,000 title deeds in the period between 2024 and 2025.
She explained that the aforesaid is the number of titles in her performance contract that her predecessor, now Water and Irrigation CS Zacharia Njeru, had signed before their roles were swapped.
"We also plan to georeference 40 per cent of all land parcels in the country by 2025. The ministry will develop a cabinet memo and policy to guide a national multipurpose cadastre in the next financial year 2024/25," she added.
Further, Wahome said they are working on solving the squatter problem especially in the coastal region, stating that the government has catered for the same in its budgetary allocations.
She was speaking on Monday during the commissioning of the Nairobi Land Justice Working Group at Milimani Law Courts.
The group's theme is, "Expediting Land Justice through people people-centred approach".
The CS said the ministry has so far covered about 30 per cent of the country in terms of issuing title deeds.
"I have heard people wondering and questioning how many title deeds we have in Nairobi. I would say that countrywide we are at about 30 per cent in terms of title deeds," she said while acknowledging that there is still a lot of work left to be done.
She stated that the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning under the Kenya Kwanza administration has processed more title deeds than the past regimes.
This is aimed at increasing the percentage of land titled, in line with President William Ruto’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
Noting that land disputes in the country have become prevalent, Wahome condemned some of the causes including the double allocation.
She blamed this on those responsible for allocating lands, saying in the recent past, she has met at least three elderly women in Nairobi and other counties decrying forced evictions.
All these, she added, were emanating from the double allocation of title deeds.
Wahome urged the Judiciary through the Environment and Land Court to continue working with the Ministry of Lands to ensure that the issue is dealt with.
