Economy

Ngilu seeks to block Lands body from processing titles

ngilu

Lands secretary Charity Ngilu during a recent Press conference. Photo/Phoebe Okall

The supremacy war between Lands secretary Charity Ngilu and the National Lands Commission (NLC) has gone to Parliament where Mrs Ngilu is seeking powers to process 1,700 grants and leases to the exclusion of the commission.

Ms Ngilu told the National Assembly’s Lands committee that her ministry has been unable to process the documents since January because of inconsistencies in laws that have vested those powers with the NLC.

“These were leases and grants that were left behind by the former commissioner of lands, Zablon Mabea. Many more requests have come since February. On a daily basis, we receive an average of 130 requests.

“The stalemate is caused by encroachment of the National Land Commission on registration matters that are clearly the mandate of the ministry,” she told the committee chaired by Tharaka MP Alex Mwiru.

The MP had sought to know why the minister could not wait until the regulations are approved by Parliament before gazetting them into law.

“Our worry is that there are no regulations as of now. We want to approve them before you can go ahead. This document will also be contained in those regulations,” he said.

The Land Registration Act 2013 empowers the Registrar of Titles to sign leases while the repealed Government Land Registration Act recognises the Commissioner of Lands as the signatory to the leases and land titles.

Sections of the repealed Act are still in force until the minister and the National Assembly approve rules and regulations to fully operationalise the Land Registration Act, the Land Act and the National Land Commission Act.

Work on the regulations has been stalled by wrangling between Ms Ngilu and the Mohamed Swazuri-led NLC over who has the power to sign land titles and grants.

Ms Ngilu argues that under the law, her department is mandated to register land and issue title deeds, while the commission allocates public land.

This position has been reinforced by the Commission on Implementation of the Constitution chaired by Charles Nyachae in a letter to the committee dated October 25, 2013.

Ms Ngilu now wants MPs to allow her to gazette a new document that will enable a senior deputy chief registrar of titles at the ministry to sign the leases and grants pending the appointment of a substantive registrar of titles.

READ: Executive plans to derail lands team, lobby groups claim

She is proposing to alter the lease forms as provided by Section 108 of the Land Registration Act, 2012 and sections 160 and 161 of the Land Act 2012 “to enable us to finalise the pending leases and grants”.

Section 108 of the Land Registration Act stipulates that “until the Cabinet Secretary makes the regulations contemplated under Section 110 of the Act, any rules, or other administrative acts made, given, issued or undertaken before the commencement of the Act under any of the Acts of Parliament repealed by the Act or any other law, shall continue in force.”

The minister maintains that the national government is the ultimate guarantor of registered documents such as birth certificates, identification cards, passports and driving licences – and leases and grants should not be an exception. The minister said the Constitution recognises land under leasehold tenure as private land.

“Public land once alienated and allocated becomes private land and is managed under a different legal regime,” she said, adding that the NLC on the basis of the old special conditions on grants and leases documents has sought to sign grants and leases, a mandate that the Constitution does not give them.

Ms Ngilu said former Lands minister James Orengo had appointed a committee to draft regulations to operationalise the Acts of Parliament but the team has not submitted any report.

The commission, on the other hand, has gone ahead and handed in draft regulations to the Attorney General who has transmitted them to the House committee on Delegated Legislation for scrutiny.

Ms Ngilu said a recent clean-up of three registries had retrieved, recorded and shelved more than 1.3 million files.

“In the last one and a half months after re-opening of the registries, we have increased our revenue collection to over Sh1 billion per month. In April we collected Sh765.55 million, in May Sh862.55 million and in June Sh1.17 billion.

“In the three months between April and June, there is a notable increase of Sh409,864,498 in revenue. This shows that the changes we have instituted are bearing fruit,” she said.