Informal moratorium

For months now, the Nairobi City County has not processed applications for the renewal or extension of leases. There seems to be an informal moratorium on such applications. There are murmurs and complaints surrounding it. By developers, Architects, Planners, Surveyors and other professionals charged with routinely supporting Kenyans requesting such technical support. What heightens anxiety is that no one seems to want to take responsibility and accountability on the matter within the City Planning Department. Worse, there’s been neither official explanation about the cessation, nor justification. Such lacuna invites speculation, and, in the circumstances, the highest office in the County Government, that of the Governor, deserves to be called out.

Renewal and extension of leases

So that Governor Johnson Sakaja may appreciate the kind of perception problem the cessation and lack of policy clarity this may cost him, let’s revisit history. In this country, one may own land under freehold terms. This is absolute ownership, and is perpetual. Most titles to former ancestral land countrywide are held under such terms. But one could also lease land from another, either an individual or entity, for a term of years, subject to the payment of some periodic rent. Under the arrangement, many Kenyans in cities and urban areas have their residences or businesses on land leased from government. Where they seek to undertake some types of development, financiers may require them to extend the term of years remaining to the expiry of their leases. Where the leases are about to expire, and the lessees wish to renew them, they apply for renewal to the government accordingly. Luckily, the new land regime under the Land Act of 2012 accords citizens pre-emptive rights for such renewal, unless such land is needed for public projects.

Lease renewal irregularities

In the past, the process of lease renewal was infamous. It was mired in irregularities. Speculators, within and outside government, had taken the system hostage. Applying for lease renewal was tantamount to revealing the impending expiry to the preying conspirators. Strategically placed insiders would pounce on the lease renewal applications and hide them, frustrating and defeating the renewal process until the leases expired. The expiry would trigger the re-granting of the properties, and new leases would be processed for those preferred. To avoid this cruel fate, Kenyans holding leases to prime properties in urban areas held back their applications within that period, creating a backlog of expired leases. A Ministry of Lands task force that I chaired a while back investigated the matter, highlighted the prevalent challenges and made pertinent recommendations. Efficiency and transparency in this process are paramount. Kenya’s capital city should proudly set pace.

By allowing the current impasse to persist, by not providing policy clarity and process timelines, Nairobi County risks being perceived to be regressing to the past. It risks misperceptions of encouraging an enabling environment for the likely irregular re-granting of leases. Governor Sakaja should debunk this by decreeing a resumption of normal services soonest.