The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) on Thursday announced that it would seek orders of contempt against Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney and Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri.
LSK President Allen Gichuhi revealed that he personally confirmed that the Lands ministry had failed to comply with an injunction staying the implementation of electronic filing of conveyance documents.
Conveyance refers to the legal process of transferring property from one owner to another.
"The LSK shall be moving swiftly to ensure that the Court Orders of 18th April 2018 are fully implemented by the concerned parties.
In this respect, the LSK shall be moving the court for orders of contempt against the Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Lands. The President of the LSK is, therefore, calling for submissions of evidence by members who have been similarly affected," Gichuhi wrote.
[caption caption="LSK President Allen Gichuhi at Ardhi House on 25/04/2018"]
[/caption]
He further requested lawyers who had been unable to file documents manually to submit evidence for inclusion in the application by April 26, 2018.
Karoney has previously stated that her top priority was the digitization of title deeds and other land documents, declaring that all of the ministry's records would be digitized within two years.
She maintained that the plan would greatly reduce corruption as it would make it quite difficult to manipulate records.
“We cannot choose between digital and manual. It is a question of when we must do it,” she recently asserted.
Lawyers who initially opposed the plan later called for the process to be consultative to ensure it was effective.
[caption caption="LSK officials in a meeting with their Lands Ministry counterparts on April 6, 2018"]
[/caption]
