Disarray and neglect at Kenyan land registries

An exclusive audit has exposed the rot that delays property transactions at the Ministry of Lands, writes HAROLD AYODO

A report by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) follows an assessment of land registries in Nairobi, Mombasa, Thika and Nakuru.

Missing land rent records, erroneous results of official searches and delays in valuation of property are among common vices in the registries.

?Others are delays in stamping of documents resultant from missing files, understaffing, inadequate training of staff and rampant corruption. Property transactions also delay at the registries after photocopiers break down in several occasions.

Valuation of property is also at snail pace in many Government offices as there is only one government valuer in district offices —valuation by private valuers is not accepted.

Prime Minister  Raila Odinga is shocked to peruse tattered documents in one of the registries in 2008.

?The 156-page report, titled Report on the Audit of the Nairobi, Mombasa, Thika and Nakuru Land Registries: An Assessment of the Business Processes has chronicled a litany of ills in several land registries.

?According to the audit, the Nairobi District Registry has only three registrars signing loads of documents. However, only one was in office at the time of the audit, as one registrar was on annual leave and another on study leave.

?Therefore, only one registrar had the authority to sign and handle the workload of the entire registry.

Registries stretched

There are six registrars in the central registry who can sign documents and just three in Nairobi District Registry (NDR).

The central registry located in Ardhi House has only one average photocopier with a clerk doing all the photocopying. Interestingly, a heavy-duty copier was purchased but remains unused as Ardhi House awaits procurement of a missing spare part!

?“When the machine runs out of toner, with the slow procurement processes, work at the central registry grinds to a halt,” says the report.

?Staff at the registry are overwhelmed with the workload and work late hours with some working on weekends to manage their workload.

“The challenge of overstretched staff is that tiredness increases their margin of error when working,” says the audit report.

?There are several uncollected documents in the central registry, some dating to 2002 and  stored in the strong room. They are not sorted but bundled together.

There are also many cases of fraud and police officers occasionally pursue pending cases with Ministry of Lands officers.

?“The requirement for submission of a copy of the title when applying for a title search has revealed existence of many fake titles,” the report says.

The investigating officers have to rely on natural skills and instincts as well as past experience as none of them are forensic experts.

?Other challenges include slow and erratic procurement of supplies and communication with the public on the changes of requirements for registration.

?At the Thika Ardhi House, the report says the registry is poorly constructed having been hived off from the Kiambu District Land Registry in 1996.

?“Dust levels have reached higher levels that are causing health issues to staff who are on medication for allergies and congestion,” says the study. There is one room that holds parcel files that were moved from Kiambu District Lands Registry and have never been sorted for placement in shelves.

Documents disarray

“The thousands of files are tied up in bundles and strewn all over shelves and on the floor,” the report continues says. According to the audit, the files relate to parcels of land that were being transacted on! Brokers and fraudsters are also a major challenge as they mill around the Thika registry offering to ‘assist’ unsuspecting members of the public.

?“All legal forms of the registry are supplied by a photocopy kiosk outside the registry,” the report notes.

Other challenges for the registry are the effects of land buying companies where wrangles and infighting of directors create confusions.   

The local authority at Thika is also approving building plans for people without title deeds.

“Applicants merely present receipts of purchase or letters from vendors confirming sale to applicants,” says the audit report.

Staff is also over-stretched and assistant registrars alternate the management of the service counter. At Thika, registration of property takes long; there are numerous boundary disputes and fake documentation. However, the Ministry of Lands recently gazetted the opening of a new registry in Ruiru to ease congestion in Thika.

Headquarter grabbed

?At the Coast, it is farcical – Mombasa does not have a lands registry  after the land set aside for its construction was allegedly illegally allocated to a private developer. The title of the land has since been revoked and the matter is before a court.

?Consequently, the lands offices are located in two separate locations —?the Lands and Physical Planning Departments housed at the Provincial Commissioner’s building on the first and fifth floor respectively while the Survey and Land Adjudication and Settlement Departments are located in Bima Towers in a different part of Mombasa city.

?On land administration, Mombasa has a unique practice of confirming the status of land with the Provincial Commissioner’s (PC) office. Before issuing consent to transfer titles, a request for verification that the land is not in dispute is sought from the PC.

There is also issuance of presidential consent for dealings on beach property — an administrative directive by the former President but not a legal requirement. Interestingly, other registries in the Coast do not require presidential consent even though there are beach properties within their jurisdiction.

Botched processes

Additionally, a legal requirement to obtain land rate clearance certificates from Nairobi is being sidelined in Mombasa. Consents to transfer property are being issued against receipts evidencing payment of land rent for the current year.

“It does not sound like any reconciliation is being done to ensure land rent records will be correct,” says the report.

?It is highly likely that the practice of ignoring rate certificates will eventually trigger a crisis if Nairobi insists on clearance certificates being issued before consent is granted.

There is also duplicity of records as all allocations and allotments of land are handled in Nairobi. A commissioner’s correspondence file is opened and maintained in Nairobi and another in Mombasa. Consequently, the numbering of the file does not correlate to the file held in Nairobi and vice versa.

?Other challenges in Mombasa include poor storage of documentation, need for decentralisation and equipment as they have a paltry four computers.

“There is no photocopier…registered documents leave the ministry offices to be photocopied on the ground floor,” the report says. The squatter problem is also rampant as absentee landlords sub divide their parcels and give portions to squatters to appease them. Settlement schemes have also been developed in the city, which has affected planning, leading to proliferation of uncontrolled developments.

“There is an overlap in planning as Mombasa City Council has a director of physical planning who reports to the mayor,” says the report. Consequently, the local authority approves buildings even without reference to the Department of Physical Planning.

Timely intervention

?At the Nakuru Ardhi House, neatness of the registry speaks volumes compared to their counterparts in Nairobi, Thika and Mombasa. The registry in Nakuru was historically fraught with challenges of poor record keeping and missing files. It co-ordinated with the National Archives, which assisted them with document sorting and management, which reduced cases of missing files.

?Nevertheless, the major challenge is lack of financial support from the Ministry of Lands headquarters.

?“At the time of visiting, they had been without electricity for over a month (since early December last year) over an unpaid bill of Sh94,000,” the report says.

“Without electricity, the computers are useless. They still rely on old dilapidated typewriters for regular correspondence and preparation of title deeds. At present, correspondence is barely moving and has created a huge backlog of property transactions.

?Other departments within the building do not even have the  ‘luxury’ of dilapidated typewriters and have to seek services of external secretarial bureaus and cyber cafes. To frank documents for stamp duty, they carry the franking machine across the street to the PCs office.

?“They have no cleaning staff, no running water over lack of electricity to pump,” continues the audit report.

?Boundary disputes are also trademark of the registry following the history of political interference in land buying companies and co-operatives. Consequently, registrars also have to attend court regularly following numerous cases arising from historical errors.