Lamu, KENYA: The county government of Lamu has launched a sh.5 million land survey exercise for all villages in Pate Island, Lamu East.
Speaking when he launched the exercise at the Pate Social Hall on Tuesday, Lamu deputy governor Abdulhakim Aboud said a total of 700 land titles will be issued to locals at the end of the exercise.
He acknowledged that the lack of title deeds was a major cause for increased land squabbles in the region.
Aboud said the county government was committed to ensuring security of lands in the region by arming land owners with title deeds so as to enable them protect their lands from land grabbers.
He said they are working closely with the National Lands Commission-NLC so as to speed up issuance of title deeds to all land owners in the county.
“Our people haven’t had title deeds since independence and that’s why as an administration we want to try and resolve that,” Aboud said.
“We intend to have the exercise conducted all around Lamu. Our aim is to ensure every single land owner in this county has their title deed,” he added.
The Deputy Governor also said the county government had similarly commenced land adjudication all around Lamu including Kiongwe in Mpeketoni, Witu, Mokowe, Mwambore in Kiunga, Rubu and Mkononi.
The county government of Lamu is also looking to resettle at least 500 squatters by June 2019 and on a lager scale at least 20,000 in the next four years.
“We are really doing our best to address the issue of squatters. We understand most squatters lost their lands just because they had no titles to protect them with in the first place,” said Aboud.
Lamu East MP Athman Shariff also graced the event.
“Such issues will end only when lands are demarcated and people given title deeds. We are therefore happy with the strides and efforts being made by the county government,” said Shariff.
