The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning plans to clean its register in a crackdown targeting Nairobi landowners accused of grabbing public property.
While appearing before the Devolution Committee in Parliament on Thursday, March 3, Lands CS Farida Karoney underlined that the cleanup exercise was aligned with the digital changes via the Ardhisasa system unveiled by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Karoney noted that the crackdown scheduled for June 2022 targets over 2,000 landowners in Pumwani, Parklands, Eastleigh and Kariobangi areas.
“We are currently working to document all public lands and hopefully register them. My team will visit the grounds and compile a status report. The plan is in progress and we are hopeful that this (crackdown) won’t present any problems.
“Once land has been set aside as a public utility it is not available for alienation. If that happens then the transfer of ownership is illegal,” Karoney explained.
Officials from the Ministry who accompanied her explained that the surveys for the parcels of land in contention were carried out in the 1990s thus need for revision.
Kericho Senator, Aaron Cheruiyot added that the committee will summon private developers who were accused of grabbing the land to appear before it on Monday, March 7.
Other lawmakers urged the CS to treat the matter with urgency and address it prior to the August 8 polls, since land issue is usually emotive in the country.
In April 2021, President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the National Land Information Management System (NLIMS) dubbed Ardhisasa as part of the Ministry of Lands' digital transformation plan. This was a bold move by the Kenyatta administration to streamline the sector.
"The Nairobi land registry will not take manual applications following the launch of the #Ardhisasa platform," Uhuru announced.
Lands CS Karoney, later on, noted that they expected cartels and land grabbers to oppose the digitisation process, but they were keen on cleaning up the system to curb graft.
The process, she added would ease property registration, introduce transparency in land administration and management, enforce transparency, equity and non-discrimination.
“I wish to assure land and property owners as well as the general public that the ministry is taking great care to protect property rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of Kenya and the laws that govern land administration and management in Kenya,” she vowed.
