Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome on Sunday raised the alarm about non-citizens being in possession of freehold titles and subsequently proceeded to order an audit of all land documents in the Coastal region.
Speaking at the Coast during an inspection visit to the land registry in Mombasa County, the CS reiterated that during the audit, all forged land documents will be expunged from the records while culpable individuals will face the full force of the law.
CS Wahome also issued a warning to all land registrars who had been facilitating foreigners in the region to acquire the ownership documents adding that only Kenyans were allowed to be in possession of freehold titles.
Freehold titles give the holder absolute possession of a piece of land for life as compared to leases which expire after 99 years. The titles can not be transferred to foreigners.
"The banks are also falling prey to forged documents. I asked the banks to get their land valuers and lawyers to do due diligence in the interrogation of land titles," she remarked.
She explained that if foreigners were interested in occupying land, they should apply for a lease. Wahome noted that when foreigners get freehold titles they go against Article 65 of the Constitution which only allows foreigners to lease land.
"I must remind all the Land Registrars and Land Officers wherever they are that freehold titles under the constitution article 65 cannot be transferred or owned by foreigners. I am not specifying any group, but you must be a Kenyan to own a freehold title," she stated.
"If we found anyone sleeping on the job, I don't think we are going to be nice to them, I am also not allowed to sleep on my job," she reiterated.
Further, CS Wahome revealed that the Ministry is also working to digitise all the operations and applications to weed out cartels who take advantage of the manual systems.
"We are in the process of digitising our records. The digitisation process will make things more efficient, this has been completed in Nairobi and Murang'a counties," she stated.
The CS added that the Ministry was waiting for funds from the National Treasury to fully roll out the digitisation program in other counties at the Coast such as Kwale, Kilifi, Lamu and Taita Taveta.
Wahome further revealed that the Ministry of Lands was on a mission to recover land parcels at the Coast which have remained unoccupied for over 12 years.
