Ministry put to task over title deeds forgery

Kenya: The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) wants the Lands ministry to issue second generation title deeds that are tamper proof.

The lawyers said the second generation titles should have peculiar features that criminals and land fraudsters would not be able to alter.

LSK Chairman Erick Mutua demanded that the Lands ministry conducts an audit of all the issued title deeds since Independence so as to distinguish between genuine and fake ones. “The Lands ministry must do an audit of the titles and find out who is having genuine title and who has a fake document,” said Mutua.

Ngilu-NLC rivalry

Addressing the Press after a luncheon graced by Lands Principal Secretary Mariamu el Maawy, Mutua said there were many cases of land documents forgery perpetuated by unscrupulous people both from outside and within the ministry.

LACK OF OFFICE

The lawyers wondered why the timelines for getting necessary documents at the ministry were not being followed by the employees and said the rivalry between the National Land Commission and the Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu was hurting service delivery.

They also lamented about lack of a clear complaints body within the ministry.

“Lack of clear office to handle complaints leads to time wastage in finding the solution. Lawyers and the public are being taken round and round and this is a breeding ground for corruption,” said Mutua.

SHORTER TIME

Besides complaints, the lawyers accused the ministry officials of taking long to sign the title deeds since the issue is controversial and is currently a subject of review lodged at the Supreme Court.

But Ms Maawy came to the defence of the ministry saying service delivery had improved with registering properties which used to take 73 days now taking 16 days.

“We realised access to files and records was our biggest impediment to realising desired turn-around. We know there are still challenges and we are training our staff to meet these laid down guidelines,” said Maawy.

While responding to the lawyers’ queries, Maawy said the Government would produce second generation title deeds within this financial year though she did not specify the time frame of the production.