Coast titles useless, claims land lobby
What you need to know:
- The High Court had ordered the Ministry of Lands not to process the title deeds until the list of beneficiaries was produced for public scrutiny after some 3,000 residents went to court.
The 60,000 title deeds issued to residents of the Coast region by President Kenyatta cannot be used as collateral to secure loans, a lands lobby group has claimed.
Coast Land rights lobby group chairman Haji Mwakio said the titles are not backed by records at the Lands ministry to prove their validity.
Information that is supposed to be kept by the ministry in what is popularly known as Green Card, is missing.
“Much as the government rushed to dish out the documents prematurely, they have not added any value to beneficiaries,” he said.
He said that he had conducted a search in Taita Taveta, Kwale, Mombasa and Kilifi offices and could not find the green cards to prove whether the title deed the farmers were holding belong to them.
The Green card is a document that gives details of the owner of the farm and whether the land is charged by any financial institution.
A senior official in the Lands Ministry who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter confirmed that the green cards were not prepared.
The source said that the process was hurriedly done without following due process and beneficiaries may have to wait longer for the cards.
Mr Mwakio said by delaying to prepare the vital records, the government could be leaving a loophole for land grabbers.
The activist said the return of brief case land dealers and middlemen acting on behalf of some Land officers is fuelling fears that the process may be hijacked by fraudsters.
“We are asking Coast governors to stop issuing these documents in their current form because they will not help their political careers. Instead, they are likely to destroy them once people realise that they are just mere paper that cannot help them,” he said.
This comes at a time when Taita Taveta Governor John Mruttu is issuing title deeds to land located in a controversial settlement scheme.
Taveta phases one and two have been at the centre of controversy over the list of beneficiaries which the Ministry of Lands officials have declined to make public.
The High Court had ordered the Ministry of Lands not to process the title deeds until the list of beneficiaries was produced for public scrutiny after some 3,000 residents went to court.
The residents claimed that the land has been dished out to politicians and government officials.
