By Our Correspondent
Worth Noting:
- During the meeting, Members of the Committee raised concern over the storage of land records which had proven to be a major challenge, while responding to the query the Korir informed the Committee that a centralised database where land documents can be stored and retrieved will form part of his agenda should he be approved.
- “Currently, we have 68 land registries across the country yet some do not have a physical office. If I am approved by the National Assembly I will ensure that they are fully functioning and we’ll be staffed with at least one vehicle in each land registry office to facilitate movement to conduct land surveys, ” said the nominee.
The National Assembly Committee on Lands chaired by Joash Nyamoko, MP North Mugirango yesterday conducted an approval hearing for Nixon Korir, nominee for the position of Principal Secretary, State Department on Lands and Physical Planning.
“My core priority is to actualise the ‘Ardhi Sasa’ online platform to eradicate physical land transactions and streamline land transactions, information relating to surveys, physical planning, registration and evaluation hence reducing the long and tedious process of doing land transactions”, said the nominee, Korir while making his opening remarks.
“Majority of the land in Nairobi was last evaluated in 1981. We need to re-evaluate the rates to match the current value of land and relook at the land value index”, said the nominee while responding to queries on the land rates and collection of revenue.
Regarding the digitisation of land records Korir who was previously a Member of Parliament representing Lang’ata constituency informed the Committee that the slow implementation of the digitisation in the lands registries has been attributed to challenges relating to parcel identification and illegal occupation of both Private and Public land.
He further appraised Members that the Ministry of Lands had been allocated Kshs 769 million that was intended for digitization of land records in 20 registries for 2022/2023 financial year.
During the meeting, Members of the Committee raised concern over the storage of land records which had proven to be a major challenge, while responding to the query the Korir informed the Committee that a centralised database where land documents can be stored and retrieved will form part of his agenda should he be approved.
“Currently, we have 68 land registries across the country yet some do not have a physical office. If I am approved by the National Assembly I will ensure that they are fully functioning and we’ll be staffed with at least one vehicle in each land registry office to facilitate movement to conduct land surveys, ” said the nominee.
“As at 30th June 2022, the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning had pending bills totaling Kshs 18B attributed to court arbitration awards. This was primarily due to court awards involving acts of commission or omission and falsification of documents noting that pending bills keep accruing interest over time,” asked the Vice-chair Jane Kihara.
“It’s true that the Ministry has a significant amount of pending bills. If approved by this House I will liaise with Treasury to prioritise and develop a payment plan where applicable. I will further partner with the Office of the Attorney General to negotiate and or repeal some of the cases where applicable,” responded the former legislator.
With regards to the numerous setbacks on resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons, Korir said he would actualise the already established Land Settlement Fund as part of the Land Act, (2012).
On historical injustices such as the displacement of people and land grabbing which have largely fueled the ethnic clashes experienced in the country, the nominee highlighted the recommendations from the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Report and the Ndung’u report that should be implemented fully to restore public trust, formulation of a clearly articulated land policy, to guide allocation, distribution and ownership of land and stringent measures to curb illegal and irregular allocations of natural resources.
The Committee on Lands will prepare a comprehensive report which will be tabled before the House today.