Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court made a land mark ruling recently. The ruling, on a suit over some land in Ngara, Nairobi, will save many with pending applications on extension of leases to government land. The ruling restored rights to a proprietor whose leasehold interest dates back to 1968, but which was to expire in 2001. The proprietor applied for extension of the lease three months to expiry. However, no communication on the application was made, and the proprietor remained in occupation after the expiry, and continued to pay the applicable land rent and rates.

Expired lease reallocated without communication

Fraud syndicate

Last week served us shock news with media reports that several operatives had been arrested in connection with a fraud syndicate revolving around the Lands Ministry offices in Nairobi. The syndicate was reported to possess, or fraudulently prepare, all manner of documents needed to support registration of title. These include certificates of title, certificates of lease, letters of allotment, deed plans and even transfer forms, all crucial to the process of preparing titles on allocation or transfer of land. This makes it easy for the syndicate to drive the preparation of fake titles to targeted public land, or even duplicate titles to targeted private land.

The syndicate is able to forge signatures of retired or serving land administration officers, stamps of land registrars, and backdate documents prepared to suit its nefarious intentions. Collaboration with insiders makes it possible for such fake and irregularly prepared documents to be fed into the government database. That makes it possible for the syndicate to easily dupe Kenyans, and take their money. It complicates matters for Kenyans out to obtain land for residential and commercial investments, and also endangers private tenure rights for proprietors whose titles are duplicated. This negatively impacts investments, and increases land related disputes. The threat must therefore be accorded high priority by government.

Public land allocation

The President is reported to have recently accented to the allocation of some land at Roysambu in favour of a Nairobi Church. The subject land is said to be reserved for military use. Away from this specific land, whose contentious history remains in the public domain, does the President hold sway over the allocation of public land to individuals or other private entities?

President's powers under pre-2010 regime

Leaseholds

Can one lose their leasehold land even when they live on it? Then what happens to the buildings and other fixtures that they’ve erected thereon? I thought the answers to these basic questions are obvious. But not quite. I have found myself constrained to address these questions in radio engagements and routine social banter. While those who hold their land under freehold terms do so in perpetuity, those who hold leasehold land do so for a period. This period is usually stipulated in the lease agreement binding the landlord/lessor and the tenant/lessee. This agreement elaborates pertinent conditions, including what should happen to buildings that one may have constructed. Leases are renewable.

Discordant legislation on riparian reserves

Quite often, public writing triggers invaluable information or feedback on matters of public interest. On 5^th December last year, this column discussed the matter of riparian reserves, highlighting the discordance in the current legal framework. A paper I contributed to the latest edition of the Surveyors’ Journal, a technical publication of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya that focuses on key land sector and real estate issues, digs deep into the matter, complete with considered recommendations.