Different land title registration laws

Registration of title to land in Kenya dates back many years. The process continues. But the law that supports registration of title to land has kept changing. Over the years, we have had titles issued under the Indian Transfer of Property Act, the Land Titles Act, the Government Lands Act, the Registration of Titles Act and the Registered Land Act. These laws have been applicable in different circumstances, in different parts of Kenya and with different requirements. The land register, the official roll on which each registered title is noted and maintained, has also been different for each law, and has been kept at different places. Some registers have been maintained in Mombasa, some in Nairobi and, for properties registered under the Registered Land Act which has been most prevalent, the register has been kept in the land registries spread out across the country.

Different kinds of maps

To register any property, a registrar usually needs to confirm that a map, which provides details of the relative location of a parcel, is available and in the custody of the duly recognized government office, usually the Director of Surveys. The registration laws above called for different kinds of maps. There was no uniformity. This complicated the registration process, and caused confusion and rigour to land professionals. Land registrars ended up acquiring experience on the laws they regularly operated, and quite often found it difficult to switch to others. It made work difficult for surveyors too. They needed to prepare different kinds of survey maps, depending on the operative law within a jurisdiction. Conveyancing lawyers had similar challenges. Indeed, it took very patient lawyers to plunge into the labyrinth of provisions in the different registration laws in order to effectively serve their clients. For these reasons, it was easy to obtain consensus during the national land reform discourse that these laws needed to be consolidated, and the registration processes simplified.

Land Registration Act, 2012: Uniform cadastral map

This consensus informed our land policy, the 2010 constitution and the land laws subsequently drafted from the two seminal documents. A new law, called the Land Registration Act, was enacted in the year 2012. This law borrowed the good features from the previous laws, then repealed them all. This is therefore the only law that currently supports registration of title to land in Kenya. But remember that millions of Kenyans still hold registered ownership documents, call them title deeds, to the land they hold in different parts of Kenya, under the repealed laws. But the new law anticipated this situation and provided for transitioning, and a mechanism to convert all the previous registers, and all the title deeds supported by them, to the new Land Registration Act.

To do so, the law required the government to prepare a uniform map to support registration of title. This map, under the law called a cadastral map, has to be prepared and maintained by the Director of Surveys for every registration unit/section in the country. Once the cadastral map is ready for a particular registration unit, a new register is opened. This register will be held in land registries spread across Land Offices in the various counties. One can therefore easily appreciate that under the new law, Kenya will have a uniform cadastral map to support registration of titles, and will also have uniform and devolved land registers which will be held in each county or sub-county as will be gazetted by government. This simplifies processes and makes it possible for all landowners to deal with the local land registries, and not have to travel to centralized land registries in Nairobi and Mombasa, as used to happen. It also eases computerization of the records.

Conversion: Rights and liabilities unchanged

But to create the uniform cadastral map, the numbers to our parcels of land have to be changed. And, therefore, even the physical title deed that we hold has to be changed to conform to the new numbers on the cadastral map. But the owner name, size, shape and all interests and liabilities on each parcel won’t be changed. This is why the government has initiated a national program to convert title titles, which has started off with Nairobi County, to be gradually rolled out countrywide. Announcements on the Kenya gazette, radio and newspapers, with the applicable timelines, will be made as the initiative gets to every county. Landowners will then have their old title deeds replaced and be given new ones in conformity with the new law.

Dated: 6^th August, 2021