Ngilu defends issuance of title deeds to Coast squatters

PHOTO | FILE Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu. She has defended the authenticity of title deeds issued to 60,000 squatters at the Coast region saying there were digital records to prove it.

What you need to know:

  • She was reacting to reports that the title deeds issued recently by President Uhuru Kenyatta were not valid and that there were no records at the Lands ministry to prove the documents were authentic.
  • Cord leaders have urged their counterparts in Jubilee to stop politicising the issue of title deeds saying its issuance should be handled by the National Land Commission.

Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu has defended the authenticity of title deeds issued to 60,000 squatters at the Coast region saying there were digital records to prove it.

She was reacting to reports that the title deeds issued recently by President Uhuru Kenyatta were not valid and that there were no records at the Lands ministry to prove the documents were authentic.

She said reports indicating information on the documents as missing from the “green card" was misleading. The green card is where details on land ownership are recorded.

“My ministry wishes to state that there is a digital database containing all the information in respect of all the titles issued at the Coast during the recent concluded titling exercise,” she said in a statement.

She said the Lands ministry had digitised land records in line with the ministry’s new policy to migrate from paper based documents to digitised records which cannot be easily manipulated for document security and authenticity.

Use of digital land records had been introduced in the Land Registries in all the five counties at the coast Region namely Mombasa, Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Lamu and Kwale, said the minister.

LAND COMMISSION

Meanwhile, Cord leaders have urged their counterparts in Jubilee to stop politicising the issue of title deeds saying its issuance should be handled by the National Land Commission.

The issue has emerged as a talking point ahead of the December 19 Bomachoge Borabu by-election in which the National Alliance (TNA) is expected to be facing off with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Kisii Senator Chris Obure said Jubilee, which has since issued title deeds to thousands of squatters in the Coast region, and reportedly plans to do the same in Nyanza, including Bomachoge Borabu, the venue of the by-election, was politicising the issue and should leave it to the Lands Commission.

“Let Jubilee stop politicising a straightforward issue which should be left to the National Lands Commission,” he said.

He was speaking at a Press conference at Orange House, accompanied Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire, Bomachoge MP Simon Ogari, Bomachoge Borabu ODM by-election candidate Eng Peter Kimori and ODM executive director Mr Magerer Langat.

Mr Obure said the Cord alliance was ready for the by-election saying all arrangements were ready and the party would carry the day.

Mr Kimori will face off with TNA’s Joel Onyancha whose election was nullified by the Kisii High Court, citing electoral malpractices.

The Kisii senator said he was not aware whether Kisii residents had problems of land titles, saying any attempts to issue them with the documents by Jubilee leadership would be a political move.

Cord leader Raila Odinga has in the past accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of usurping the role of the commission by issuing over 60,000 title deeds to Coast residents, an accusation denied by the Jubilee coalition.