Land surveys without county’s approval outlawed in Meru

Meru Lands CEC Jeremiah Lenya at a press conference on February 26, 2019. [Olivia Murithi, Standard]

The Meru county government has cracked the whip on ‘rogue surveyors’ in a bid to streamline land-related matters.

Lands Executive Jeremiah Lenya said the order would be effective immediately and any surveys carried out would be considered illegal.

“We’ve agreed as a government that no single survey scheme will be processed in this county without the approval of the county government,” said Lenya.

He blamed the chaos surrounding land in Meru on fraudulent surveyors who have been performing rogue survey services.

“As a result of rogue survey what we have ended up with is a slum of a county because parcels of land registered and sold are so slim that it becomes difficult to develop them and hence can’t be useful,” lamented Mr. Lenya.

Mr. Lenya said that plans were in place to ensure that the registrar who processes title deeds files returns to the county government so that they can ascertain if the subdivisions are genuine.

“We are building an analytics desk to ensure visibility in land transactions in the county,” he added.

The audit of land services in the county by the department of physical planning will ensure the sustainability of parcels of land, earn revenue for the county and ascertain that the land is genuine.

He further announced an ambitious plan to achieve 100 percent titling in Meru County by the end of this year so as to entice private investors into investing in the affordable housing in the county.

Although the process has been hit by legal challenges with people filing court cases to block certain sections, Lenya was confident that they would make substantial progress.

Over 3000 title deeds have been issued in Ruiri/Rwarera and seven sections in Igembe will be issued with title deeds by August.