Survey Act: Origin

A lecturer called Robert Arthur Caukwell taught me cadastral survey during my undergraduate studies at the University of Nairobi. He greatly enjoyed the subject. In his 1977 Masters thesis on cadastral survey in Kenya and its role to development, Caukwell explains the origin of the Survey Act, which governs the practice of title surveys in Kenya. This includes regulating professional standards, and the licensing and regulation of surveyors. Caukwell points out that in 1923, the survey aspects of the rules and regulations to the laws that supported the registration of title to land in the colony at the time were consolidated into a Land Surveyors Ordinance. This Ordinance was later replaced by a revised version in 1951. A further revision in 1961 gave us the Survey Act (Cap 299) that we’ve used to date.

Need for substantive review

Other revisions, primarily informed by changes to the Regulations, have continued to inform this critical law. However, no substantive review has happened since. Therefore, Kenya continues to ride on a survey legal framework that, going by Caukwell’s narrative above, dates back 100 years! Yet methods, equipment and technology of collecting, processing, presenting and disseminating survey data for Kenya’s diverse needs have changed tremendously since. The Survey Act has not even been aligned to the 2010 constitution! This completely beats reason. The omission undermines national mapping and titling of land, and the development of our physical infrastructure. Government ought to close the gap.

Task force on survey sector policy and legal framework

Reason why this was one of the issues that I flagged out in one of my January columns which highlighted the key issues that Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome needed to address this year. I’d observed that “the enactment of a Survey Bill to repeal the outdated Survey Act of 1961, critical to the implementation of the new laws and titling in general, remains outstanding”. A bit of background helps. On recognizing the gap, former CS Farida Karoney established a Task Force in January 2021, which was chaired by Eric Nyadimo, the current President of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya. Its mandate was to review the survey sector policy, legal and institutional frameworks.

Pending Draft Bills

Among the Task Force’s specific terms was to review the Survey Act, Cap 299. This Task Force completed its work and submitted its report, complete with a draft National Land Surveying and Mapping Policy, a draft Surveying and Mapping Bill and a draft Land Surveyors Registration Bill, to Farida Karoney during her sunset days in Ardhi House. Reports submitted close to government transitions often “die”. I for instance recall chairing a Task Force on Land Leases whose report we submitted to Prof Jacob Kaimenyi in his last days in the docket. Transition haze compromised implementation. This could be the fate facing the reports submitted by Eric Nyadimo’s team.

Luckily, Alice Wahome is back to the Ministry. She now has opportunity to look up these reports and oversee enactment. This will positively impact titling and mapping in Kenya.