This archive report was first published on 31 October 2019.
The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning has directed land buying firms in Ruiru and Juja to surrender their land membership registers, mother title, maps, and other related documents within a week.
This move is aimed at fast-tracking the issuance of title deeds to land owners.
According to Ruiru sub-county deputy county commissioner Geoffrey Ithai, the decision was made after the ongoing Ruiru land clinic revealed that most land buying companies had taken decades to issue title deeds to their members.
He alleged that some of these companies had siphoned cash from unsuspecting land owners, while others had stolen and sold members' land.
Additionally, Ithai noted that protracted leadership rows and court cases had hindered the issuance of title deeds in these companies.
He emphasized that directors of these companies were responsible for issuing title deeds to members, and those who had stolen and sold members' land would face consequences.
He warned that directors who had engaged in such malpractices would remain cursed, and some had even ended up in jail or killed in revenge.
Ruiru MP Simon Ng'ang'a King'ara stated that Ruiru sub-county had 513 land buying companies and that the ministry aimed to issue 30,000 title deeds by the end of the land clinic on November 6.
He urged directors to resolve their disputes amicably and out of court.
However, Githunguri Land Buying company chairman John Maina expressed concerns that the Kiambu county government had shortchanged his company by declining to hand over a title deed for an 82-acre land that they had exchanged for a sewerage system funded by the World Bank.
He stated, 'We surrendered our 82-acre land to the county in exchange for their land. I facilitated the issuance of the title deed for them, but to date, the county has declined to release the title deed of the land we exchanged with.'
