The Ministry of Lands has announced the permanent closure of its Central Lands Registry at their Upper Hill, Nairobi headquarters.
Lands Cabinet Secretary Fadiah Karoney yesterday, June 2, announced that all files that were at the headquarters will now be moved to Ministry of Lands offices at the Counties level.
The CS pronounced that the move to devolve the lands registry unit was informed by the decision to tame rampant corruption that has been the highlight of the department for years.
She further announced that the lands files for properties in Nairobi will be transferred to the county's Lands Ministry.
"The records will be taken to their home registries. The records concerning Nairobi will be transferred to Nairobi Registry," the CS stated.
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Karoney noted that a huge percentage of the files at the registry were of lands initially owned by white settlers, especially in places like Nyeri, Eldoret and Nakuru as well as Karen and Westlands in Nairobi.
"We have to secure titles because land management is one of the indicators under the ease of doing business. Consistently over the years, the land indicator was not doing well because of fraud, middlemen and brokers. It performed badly," the CS explained.
In April, the Ministry of Lands made the decision to devolve the registry department, as the it migrates to the new Lands Registry System.
Karoney announced that the Ministry has successfully ensured the completion of the National Land Information Management System known as Ardhisasa.
The CS noted that the move by the Ministry will ensure that land registration now complies with the Land Registration Act 2012, as opposed to the prior five laws governing the process.
These included: Indian Transfer of Property Act of 1882, the Government Lands Act (Cap.280), the Registration of Titles Act (Cap.281), the Land Titles Act (Cap.282), and the Registered Land Act (Cap.300).
