Leaders urge Uhuru not to issue deeds

By PATRICK BEJA

Lamu County: The County Government of Lamu has urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to suspend planned issuance of 60,000 title deeds at the Coast to allow for audit of the documents by county authorities.

The county authorities also protested against alleged isolation by the national government in the plan to release the title deeds to residents.

Last week, the governors of Kwale and Kilifi, Salim Mvurya and Amason Kingi , also called for postponement of the issuance of the titles. They claimed there were disputes over the real and rightful holders of the titles.

Consultations

The two also said the government should address the matter of stalled settlements in the two counties with the Kilifi governor warning any issuance of deeds at this time will spur a new land grabbing culture in the Coast.

And yesterday, in a signed statement on behalf of Lamu Governor Issa Timamy, the county executive member for Land, Physical Planning and Natural Resources Amina Masoud told the national government to embrace consultations with the county leadership before title deeds are issued to the public.

She claimed assistant county commissioners, chiefs, headmen and private surveyors had been involved in illegal subdivision and allocation of land in the county.

Mrs Masoud claimed it was not in the interest of Lamu people to allocate their ancestral land to non-residents while majority of them remain squatters.

Land registries

“We hereby request Uhuru to suspend this very important exercise until proper consultation and thorough audit of title deeds for the entire Lamu County is conducted,” Masoud said.

The county authorities were reacting to a recent report where 60,000 title deeds are to be issued to Coast residents when President Uhuru visits Coast this week to preside over the Mombasa International Show. National Land Commission chairman Dr Mohamed Swazuri has clarified the 60,000 title deeds have been lying in various land registries in Coast and were not new titles.

According to Swazuri, NLC will start issuing new title deeds when it completes formulating land regulations later in the year.