The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning will work with Kara to continue creating awareness on the ongoing land title conversion exercise.
Speaking at the Bimonthly Talk Series forum on the subject: “Understanding Land Title Conversion Under the Land Registration Act (No.6 of 2012) and the Land Registration (Registration Units) Order, 2017, the Land Secretary Ms. Esther Ogego said that the Ministry is keen to ensure that as many people as possible have a clear understanding of what the exercise is about and Resident Associations provide an effective channel of sharing information about the exercise.
The forum was organized to provide a platform for engagement between Resident Associations and the Ministry on the move by the Ministry to publish Gazette Notice No. 11348 of 2020 notifying the general public of the land title conversion exercise under the Land Registration Act (No.6 of 2012) and the Land Registration (Registration Units) Order, 2017. Speakers at the forum were Ms. Esther Ogega (who read the statement by Ms. Farida Karoney, the Lands and Physical Planning Cabinet Secretary); Mr. Abraham Samoei, President, Institution of Surveyors of Kenya, and Mr. Ibrahim Mwathane, Chairman, Land Development and Governance Institute.
The Cabinet Secretary in her speech (click here for the full speech) stated that the Ministry is making deliberate efforts to enhance accountability, transparency and efficiency in land administration and management. She noted that the Land Registration Act, 2012 was enacted pursuant to Article 68 of the Constitution to revise, consolidate and rationalise the existing land laws. The Act repealed the Indian Transfer of Property Act, 1882, the Government Lands Act (Cap. 280), the Registration of Titles Act (Cap. 281), the Land Titles Act (Cap. 282) and the Registered Land Act (Cap. 300). She added that the conversion process entails preparation of cadastral maps together with a conversion list indicating the new and the old numbers for parcels of land within the registration unit or registration section/block and their corresponding acreage. She said that the Ministry has commenced the migration process for land parcels within the Nairobi Registration Unit and has prepared and published cadastral maps and conversion lists for a number of registration sections/blocks. She added that the Ministry has put in place in a number of measures to ensure accountability and enhance public confidence in the exercise, this includes; developing a catalogue of frequently asked questions which are posted on Ministry’s website; set up of a help desk at Ardhi House; media campaigns to sensitise Kenyans on this process; use of social media engagement platforms to reach out to more stakeholders, and the development of a manual that will offer guidelines on the entire process.
Mr. Abraham Samoei lauded the Ministry on its ongoing efforts to enhance land reforms in Kenya. He urged the Ministry to establish tracking mechanism for application of new titles to enhance transparency in the conversion process. He also urged the Ministry to invest in technology such as geo referencing which helps to limit land disputes.
Mr. Mwathane also supported the Ministry’s ongoing reforms in the lands sector and called for enhanced civic education on the conversion process. He pointed out a number of challenges currently being faced by the Ministry in the conversion process such as lack of technical capacity; overwhelming raw data; trust by citizens and vulnerability of the Registry Index Maps (RIMs). He urged the Ministry to consider extending deadline for the title conversion if a majority of the citizens will not have replaced their titles on the set timelines.
You can find the video link for the forum here:
