Uproar over Kaimenyi’s land lease renewal order

The requirement for land owners to channel requests for renewal of leases through the National Land Commission (NLC) has sparked an uproar.

Lands secretary Jacob Kaimenyi issued a gazette notice demanding the NLC to first vet those seeking lease renewals before counties process the applications.

Applications for the renewals were being handled by county governments until December. The Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK) has warned that the current arrangement is unconstitutional.

The surveyors said that the inclusion of NLC in vetting private land owners sets the stage for a fresh conflict between the national government and counties.

“We however note that the guidelines on the renewal and extension of leases as gazetted by the Cabinet secretary are not consistent with the Constitution, spirit of land reforms and the devolved system of government,” said ISK chairman Stephen Ambani.

The new guidelines led to the lifting of the ban on renewal of leases. The ban came in force last December.

READ: Owners of idle land may lose their leases under new rules

The lifting of the ban look set to unlock property deals that remained frozen as investors remained jittery to develop or sale land whose leases had expired or neared expiry.

Under the new rules, the government will have to notify owners of land of expiry of their leases five years before the tenancy period expires via registered mail and make physical contact to advice on the renewal should they fail to respond the notices.

The state will notify property owners whose leases are nearing expiry through press notices in newspapers with countrywide circulation should they fail to respond to the registered mail.

Physical follow ups will be made if they fail to respond to the media notices. In the event that those occupying land do not wish to renew the land in question, the land will revert to the government.

Occupants of lease hold properties had become targets of a cartel that is colluding with officials at the Ministry of Lands to fraudulently process extension and renewal of land leases.

In Nairobi, hired goons who rely on forged ownership documents and renewing others illegally have descended on homes, sometimes in broad daylight claiming that the land in question had exchanged hands, after expiry of leases.

This prompted the December freeze in renewal of land leases.