Its a reprieve for Kajiado county town as it seeks to allocate title deeds to locals who have been waiting for more than forty years. A Kajiado Environment and land court has ordered that the three Consultants companies hired by the county Government of Kajiado to continue with survey and title deed Processing for more than 10,000 plots.
In April last year, the county government in conjunction with the National Land Commission (NLC) embarked on issuing title deeds to clear the mess. In some areas, land disputes have been the order of the day, following double allocation by the defunct Olkejuado County Council.
The defunct Councillors would give one person a plot but when they left office, the incoming Councillor issued the same plot to another person. The Department of Land hired three consultancy firms to carry out the exercise. But a section of landowners petitioned the process and urged the county government to stop the process.
Gatome and Associates, Geoflex Consultants Consulting and Surveying and Mapping Services have been tasked to complete the process. And since the county government did not have a budget for the titling process, they engaged the consultants through a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
However, a section of kajiado town plot owners petitioned the process and urged the county government to stop the process. Later last year, the court suspended the process pending the hearing of the petition On Wednesday, Justice Maxwell Gicheru ruled the process to continue with disputed plots not included in the process.
The court also ruled that the Kajiado County Government department of land establish a special Registry for collection of documents and Leases. The court further ordered the county Government open a bank account for the Kajiado town plot allottees and the consultant to be a mandatory signatory.
Justice Gicheru said a bank account for Embulbul town that was opened in 2016 be retained while other plot owners in other towns will pay directly to the consultant. Kajiado Lands Executive Hamilton Parseina has applauded the court decision saying he is happy that the desperate plot owners will now benefit.
”We are happy with both the consensus arrived at by all the parties concerned and the court ruling which gave a green light for the county government to continue with the process of Titling. It is a win for plot owners who will reap the benefits of being title deed holders” said Parseina.