MP storms Thika Lands Registry following numerous complaints over poor service delivery.

Thika Town MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina on Thursday stormed the Thika Lands Registry following numerous complaints by residents over poor service delivery.

Accompanied by the Thika West DCC Douglas Mutai, Wainaina sought answers to various complaints lodged by people among them delayed land search results and double allocation of land documents as experienced in some areas.

“Land is a very important factor of production and we cannot let people drag our economy through unwarranted action or inaction. I understand that some land searches here run back to three months ago. How do you expect such a person to move on when someone has denied them the opportunity to transact business with their land? It is very demoralising to say the least,” Wainaina said in a press interview after a tour of the facility.

Despite acknowledging the fact that there might have been an issue of understaffing in the registry, the MP said that the issue of service delivery boiled down with proper time management and use of the available resources which included human resource.

“We need to work with targets here. We got to optimise service delivery with the resources we have by looking for ways to clear the backlog. Otherwise, as the area MP, I promise to chip in where you feel that my office might offer some assistance to enable you do your work properly,” he told the staff.

In this regard, Wainaina asked the Thika Lands Registrar Bernard Leitich to sit down with his staff and list down all the challenges they faced as a registry so that he could address them with the relevant ministries.

“My office has given out the CDF Land Rover once a week to assist the departments of valuation and survey with mobility. I will also visit the CS Ministry of Lands seeking solutions to the issue of understaffing in this registry,” he said.

The MP warned land-buying companies that were yet to issue their clients with title deeds that their days were numbered. He noted that such practice was among the factors that had led to too much land frauds and contributed to land grabbing which was rampant in the area.

“Some of these companies have been in existence for more than 20 years and have yet to issue their clients with title deeds. Once a company sub-divides and issues land to their members, they should give them their title deeds, wind up and then look for another piece of land for their next new project,” he said.

He promised to organise a land clinic in the near future to offer residents discuss all matters in the region and unearth the rot in the sector.

Responding to these allegations, Mr. Leitich admitted that the registry has had its own challenges, which he promised to look into.

“Other than working with a slim workforce, we have been having a transition after the recent staff redeployment to other stations. The new staff are still learning the logistics but coping well now. 

Otherwise, I promise you that in the next one week, we will clear the backlog and henceforth deliver land searches within two days at most,” said Leitich.

He also blamed their clients for conducting too many searches for the same parcels of land, thus congesting the registry with unwarranted search requests.

Leitich also warned brokers against hanging around the registry’s entrance and offices as they were a hindrance to service delivery.

Thika lands office has been very notorious in land fraud with many unsuspecting land buyers losing millions of their hard-earned cash to conmen who take advantage of the confusion at the Lands office to make the kill. So many people have lost money to unscrupulous brokers who have been camping our offices and liaising with corrupt officials in the registry to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans.

Brokers camp around the registry to take advantage of the confusion and frustrations to overcharge people coming to conduct searches or ascertain other land related issues with some crooks using the opportunity to con unsuspecting clients or swindle people off their land.