Title deeds to be issued afresh. What this means

Kenya is transitioning to a new lands registration system that will see title deeds issued afresh under a new digital lands register, effectively invalidating all titles dispensed under old land registration statutes.

The rollout of the so-called digital land information management system is aimed at operationalising the Land Registration Act 2012 – which repealed the Indian Transfer of Property Act, 1882, the Government Lands Act (Cap. 280), the Registration of Titles Act (Cap. 281), the Land Titles Act (Cap. 282) and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) which were prone to fraudulent alterations.

Since the passing of the Land Registration Act 2012, processing of title deeds has been ongoing under the transitional provision with the documents bearing the titles of both the repealed and the new statute.

Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney recently said registration of land under different statutes is a complex affair that is open to manipulation by land fraudsters hence the need to centralise the service.

“The confusion occasioned by the different regimes has become a breeding ground for fraud, delays in service delivery, centralisation of land services and threats to the right to property,” Ms Karoney said.

Digitization of land records will see the Lands ministry closing all the existing lands registers and asking registered landowners to apply for replacement of title deeds from the closed registers.

Application requirements

Registered landowners will be required to present the original title deed and their identification documents for verification. The old deeds will be surrendered to the registrar when new ones are issued.

Titles held as surety by third parties such as lending institutions, courts, and hospitals will be replaced upon the application by the land owner. Land under caveat will be migrated automatically.

The ministry is however silent on the conversion of title deeds of contested properties.

Upon the closure of the old registers, the ministry will no longer use the traditional deed plans as registration instruments and will instead rely on the Registry Index Maps (RIMs) – which are generated from survey plans with fixed boundaries.

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The RIM shows all land parcels within an area as opposed to the traditional deed plan that only indicates details of one specific parcel of land, thus minimising fraud by making it easy to detect alterations.

“Both the RIMs and the survey plans will be accessible to landowners on request for verification of boundary details at the Survey of Kenya Headquarters, Ruaraka,” the CS said.

The government has assured landowners that cancellation and replacement of the titles will shift the parcels to the new regime while retaining the ownership, size and other details of the respective title.

New parcel numbers

One of the outstanding changes under the new regime is the alteration of parcel numbers. In Nairobi, for example, the parcel of land identified as L.R. No. 209/7229 is now Parcel Number 1 in Nairobi/Block1 while L.R. No. 4393/12 in Nairobi/Block2 is now Parcel Number 1 in Nairobi/Block2.

With about 11 million title deeds due for conversion, the ministry says the shift will be done in phases starting with Nairobi where 5,000 new titles have been issued.

The process of migrating 29 out of the 250 blocks that make up the city is currently underway, with the conversion expected to continue until end of next year.

“We are doing it gradually because we do not want the process to be overwhelming. Migrating all those titles is not easy so you have to phase it out,” Ms Karoney said.

The new title deeds will be issued afresh free of change.

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