Why title deed of your land will be converted, replaced

Registration of title to land in Kenya dates back many years. But the law that supports registration of title to land has kept changing. Over the years, titles have been issued under the Indian Transfer of Property Act, the Land Titles Act, the Government Lands Act, the Registration of Titles Act and the Registered Land Act. 

These laws are applicable in different circumstances, in different parts of Kenya and with different requirements. The land register, the official roll on which registered titles are noted and maintained, has also been different for each law and has been kept at different places.

Some registers are maintained in Mombasa and others in Nairobi while, for properties registered under the Registered Land Act, which has been most prevalent, in the land registries across the country.

To register a property, a registrar usually needs to confirm that a map with the details of the relative location of a parcel is available and in the custody of a government office, usually the Director of Surveys.

The registration laws called for different kinds of maps. There was no uniformity. This complicated registration and caused confusion. Land registrars often found it difficult to switch to laws other than those the familiar. Surveyors needed to prepare different kinds of maps. Conveyancing lawyers, too.

Reach consensus

For these reasons, it was easy to reach consensus during the national land reform discourse that these laws needed to be consolidated, and the registration processes simplified. This informed our land policy, the 2010 Constitution and the land laws subsequently drafted from the two seminal documents. The Land Registration Act 2012 was enacted. It borrowed the old ones and then repealed them all. 

Millions of Kenyans still hold registered ownership documents, which they call land title deeds, under the repealed laws. But the new law anticipated that and provided for transitioning and a mechanism to convert all the previous registers and the title deeds supported by them to the new law.

The law requires the government to prepare a uniform map — cadastral map — to support registration of title. It has to be prepared and maintained by the Director of Surveys for every registration unit/section. Once a map is ready for a registration unit, a new register is opened. This register will be held in all land registries.

A uniform cadastral map, supporting registration of titles, will also have identical devolved land registers in every county or sub-county. That will simplify the processes and make it possible for landowners to deal with the local land registries. It will also ease computerisation of land records.

The number, and the physical title deeds, to all parcels of land now have to be changed to conform to the new numbers on the cadastral map. However, the owner’s name, size, shape and all interests and liabilities on a parcel won’t be changed. The national programme to convert title titles, now in Nairobi, will be gradually rolled out countrywide.

Mr Mwathane is a consultant on land governance. [email protected]