Land CS Kaimenyi asks 88,000 land owners to collect title deeds

Lands Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi. (Photo: Courtesy)

Lands Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has asked 88,000 land owners in Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties who have not collected their title deeds to clear the backlog at the lands registries.

Kaimenyi said 56,000 title deeds are lying at the lands registry in Meru awaiting collection, while in Tharaka, some 32,000 land owners are yet to pick the crucial documents.

Addressing the media in Meru town yesterday, the CS said it was shocking that such a huge number of the title deeds remain uncollected while people in other places are longing for the vital documents.

“The Jubilee government has been kind and has processed many title deeds since 2013.

"In Meru alone, we have processed 156,000 deeds while in Tharaka Nithi, we have availed 83,000.

"It is shocking that many of the land owners are not willing to collect their documents despite being processed in time,” said Prof Kaimenyi

He said the motive of the Government to speed up processing of the title deeds was to quell the border conflicts between the two counties.

“You live in two different counties but you are one community. Live in peace, because even the Government is doing everything it can to assist you in lands matters,” the CS said.

Kaimenyi said that the Government will set up a lands registry at Kianjai in Tigania West to reduce the backlog at the Maua lands registry in Igembe South, which serves five sub-counties.

He announced that the ministry and the National Lands Commission (NLC) will begin lands adjudication in 56 areas of the two counties.

The exercise, he said, will process 185,000 title deeds.