Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney has revealed that half of Kenyans don’t have land title deeds for their parcels. She was speaking during a government initiative to resettle more than 1,300 families on a 91-acre piece of land at Mikanjuni, Kilifi County. The lands CS said the government had acquired the land from a private investor and repurposed it for resettlements subject to surveying and adjudication. “The land was purchased this year following a directive issued by the President in 2017. Because of the purchase, more than 1,300 families will no longer be termed as squatters,” she said. Accompanied by officers from the county’s land department, CS Karony said the government will subdivide the land including space for social amenities. She further said the government has issued more than 70,000 titles to residents from the coast region since 2016 and emphasized that at least two-thirds of residents from the region should be titled by 2022. Securing land titles will enable the owners to carry out further development on their parces of land providing economic development. In 2019 a study by Prindex, an organization which carries out continuous research on land rights, revealed that 61% of Kenyans feel they have the security of land tenure while another 11% remained indifferent. According to the study, only 39% of the Kenyan respondents said they possess formal documents to prove ownership or rights-use of at least one of their properties at the time. In any jurisdiction, the strength of property rights is measured by the level of citizens perception of them. Read; Only 61% of Kenyans feel their property rights are secure