Roads connect people and places for development

Roads are a delight. They connect villages, towns and cities for our social and economic activities. Often, roads upgrade lifestyles, and values to abutting properties. But while roads are ordinarily celebrated, they occasionally can also degrade our businesses or residences.

Road alignments follow the shortest possible corridors, with least resistance to construction and movement. And to minimize compensation and destruction of existing properties, where possible, roads traverse existing public reserves. The final road design and construction is therefore a function of multiple parameters tied to land values and project costs. This constraining matrix explains why roads bring joy to most, but agony to some.

Sectional Properties Act, 2020

The Sectional Properties Act, 2020 is not new. It repeals the Sectional Properties Act of 1987. The objective remains to provide for the division of buildings into units to be owned by individual proprietors. The common space, to be managed through a corporation established under the Act, is owned by the unit owners in proportionate shares as tenants in common. Sectional titles, referred to as strata or condominium titles in some jurisdictions, helps nations to confer distinct rights to owners of units or flats in multi-level developments. Such vertical development optimizes on available land, and facilitates real estate ownership by more people. It’s therefore good for high land value and high population density jurisdictions. It will support Kenya’s affordable housing scheme.

Changes from 1987 Act

Multiple land registration statutes

A December 2020 gazette notice, anchored on a Land Registration order gazetted in November 2017, kick started the process of converting Kenya’s title deeds, previously issued under a multiple legal regime, to a single regime under the Land Registration Act of 2012. When the December 2020 notice hit public space early this month, there was anxiety and confusion about what the conversion was about, and whether it doesn’t provide opportunity for the dispossession of landowners. There was concern that it may provide opportunity for mischief by unscrupulous officials, middlemen and quacks who have muddled up our land administration system for long. These concerns were valid. Until then, there was a big information gap, and hardly any public sensitization on the matter.

Public sensitization

If you own land bordering a river or through which one passes, how far from the river should you construct or farm? What guides you? Our national law on river, or riparian reserves, is unclear. It confuses professionals, developers and landowners! It’s therefore unsurprising that in practice, we have so much breach. I suspect most of it is unintended.

Unfortunately, the laws relating to riparian reserves have been with us for a while now, leading to a situation where compliance and practice is largely dependent on the legal framework one was schooled on. We therefore have a situation where developers, professional practitioners, landowners and state regulators read from different scripts. A number of laws dwell on the issue, some explicitly, others implicitly! Let me highlight some.

Title survey regulated under the Survey Act

Far too many times, I have had to privately advise on who should undertake title surveys in Kenya. It’s therefore perhaps time I did so to a wider audience. Title surveys, commonly referred to as cadastral surveys by the surveying fraternity, are regulated under the Survey Act. All surveys undertaken for the preparation of any plan for registration of title to land in Kenya are governed by this law. It specifies who should do survey and to what standards, and further provides details of examinations and procedures for admitting surveyors to undertake such surveys. Title surveys are tightly controlled by statute since title deeds and leases enjoy state guarantee. Land owners are indemnified against any errors or incorrect description of their land, and can therefore sue the state for correction or compensation. The Survey Act dates back to 1923 but has since been severally revised. It’s however yet to be aligned with the 2010 constitution and today’s realities, technology and laws.

Who is a surveyor under the Act?