Officials unearth over 2,000 fake title deeds in Namanga town

An exercise to check the validity of plots in Namanga town has revealed that at least 2,000 of them do not exist.

There are about 5,200 land ownership documents for plots in the town on the Kenya-Tanzania border, yet there are only 3,200 plots that are physically available.

County Director for Physical Planning Isaac Parashina said some areas such as Soweto and the area along Amboseli road had been left out in the exercise for lack of proper planning.

County Registrar of Lands Philip Murkuku said the exercise, which has been going on in towns, has validated 24,000 plots, with another 225 plots being claimed by multiple people.

“We want a clean sheet of land ownership data. There are people who cannot use their land economically or even build a house because of ownership disputes," said Mr Murkuku.

"We want each plot to have a legal owner."

There have been complaints from people who built houses on land they thought they owned, only to be told years later that the documents they possess are fake.

Land grabbers

“Some people have been occupying land whose sale agreements or allotment letters they do not possess. Others have fake documents. Some other land is claimed by multiple people. That is what we want to stop,” said Murkuku.

At the same time, the Kenya Pastoralist Development Network which brings together 14 counties wants community land protected from grabbers.

The lobby said these grabbers usually hide under the guise of 'international investors'.

The lobby's chairman Nassir Abdulahi and national coordinator Michael Tiampati said investors must adhere to land regulations if they have to put up their investments.

“Validation of land ownership is welcome. We also seek protection of land being held in lease by multinationals, and which is not under any use," said Mr Tiampati.