[Source: Daily Nation, by Collins Omulo]
Ministry of Lands and Nairobi County Lands department are to blame for delays in issuance of title deeds to the capital city’s Eastlands residents.
This emerged after an inquiry by Nairobi County Assembly Lands, Planning and Housing committee into the title deeds saga after it emerged that of 20, 000 titles reported to have been issued in a ceremony presided over by the President, only 79 were genuine.
The two offices have now come under fire from the City MCAs for stalling the process launched by President Kenyatta in May last year. So far, only 1, 023 titles are ready against a target of 100, 000 by December last year.
The committee chair Anthony Kiragu blamed the Ministry of Lands for holding onto processed titles long after the law firms involved in the process have cleared with them.
The Waithaka MCA has also accused the Ministry of processing title deeds without following the due process of verification of leases. This, he said, had led to the introduction of errors on the documents.
He said the heads of the five law firms who appeared before the committee said there were delays in processing of the documents from City Hall Lands office and the Lands Ministry.
Mr Kiragu reported that the lawyers said that even after preparing and forwarding leases to the county for transmission to the Ministry, but most of the lease documents were still lying at the county offices.
However, City Hall acting County Secretary Pauline Kahiga defended the county saying that the verification process is a tedious process that takes time. She said that she had so far handled 1, 700 lease documents.
The ward representatives have now threatened to write to the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji to investigate the process.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Collins Omulo]
