Lands Cabinet Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi will set up a taskforce that will come up with rules and regulations that will operationalise critical land laws that were passed by Parliament last year.
The laws are Land Laws (amendment) Act and Community Land Act.
The taskforce will have two months to complete its work.
“I will be announcing the members in the coming days. It’s important that we have those rules. The two laws removed all grey areas in our land matters and they now offer clarity on how to manage land issues,” he said.
The CS said the rules and regulations are the final piece in the jigsaw that will see people deal with land issues with more ease.
The new Acts of Parliament came after a Supreme Court Advisory opinion on how the Ministry of Lands and National Land Commission can work together.
According to Mr Ibrahim Mwathane, an expert on land matters, the Land Laws (amendments) Act 2016 clarifies roles of the Lands Cabinet Secretary and the National Land Commission in order to reduce institutional conflicts. Digitisation process “It also provides a legal mechanism for receiving, investigating and providing recommendations for the restitution of historical injustices and provides a framework for the eviction of unlawful occupiers from all categories of land,” he said It also provides a mechanism for the determination of minimum and maximum sizes of private land as well as providing for the express recognition under the new Land Registration Act of titles previously issued under the Land Titles and Government Land Acts. Finally, it provides for the appointment and qualifications of a Deputy Chief Land Registrar and County Land Registrars.
In the same breath, the Ministry of Lands has partially closed down Nairobi Central registry located at Community area in Nairobi.
The registry which is the biggest is housed at the ministry headquarters at Ardhi House. The partial closure commenced on January 9 and will end on February 14.
The affected services will be issuance of land rent clearance certificates, consent to transfer and other related processes.
The partial closure is meant to digitise land records. Prof Kaimenyi said core services won’t be affected save for minor disruptions for greater good in future.
“It’s a critical exercise because we want to move land files from manual storage to electronic. We have been doing it in other registries across the country,” he said. The CS said there will be minimal disruptions but in the end it will help in easy access of the files.
“The issue of lost files will be a thing of the past. That is why this digitisation process is very critical,” he said.
Source; Daily Nation
