News Categories: Lands News

Governor Lenku meets wildlife conservationists:

Governor Joseph Ole Lenku had an early morning meeting with the conservation community and leaders from Kajiado in an effort to strengthen ties during this period of transition of the Amboseli National Park to The Amboseli National Game Reserve.

The briefing was attended by Richard Bonham Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of the Big Life Foundation in Kenya, Dr Benson Leyian, CEO Big Life, Dr Lucy Waruingi, Director and Chairperson, Association of Conservation Alliance of Kenya and Chair of the National Wildlife Conservation Fund, Daniel Leturesh, Chairman, Olgulului Group Ranch and Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, John Kamanga – Director, South Rift Association of Land Owners (SORALO), Dr David Western, former KWS Director and Chairman of Africa Conservation Centre and currently Chairman of Amboseli Conservation Project.

Leaders present were Hon. Samuel Parashina, MP Kajiado South, Hon. Kakuta Maimai, MP Kajiado East and Senators Samuel Seki and Peris Tobiko among others.

H.E the Governor  launched the issuance of the land documents which now enables the residents to develop the plots.

Residents of Mosiro, one of the marginalized areas in Maasailand, can now seek commercial loans using plots at Oldorko town.

The Kajiado Electronic Development Application Management System (KeDAMS) was officially launched today at the County Headquarters. The automated system is expected to fast track development approval processes while improving efficiency of previously manual operations within the County Departments.

Speaking during the launch Deputy Governor Martin Moshisho said the interactive KeDAMS system will enable users to access key county services at their own comfort regardless of their location. He added that this was a major step for the County Government under the leadership of H.E Joseph Lenku to fully digitize operations and optimize revenue collection in all sectors.

Moshisho assured members of the public that the interactive system has incorporated views from various stakeholders and urged investors keen on development initiatives in the County to make use of the system to fast track their investment processes.

“Digitization of our services is not optional and we endeavor to fully digitize all our services so that members of the public have access to them with ease,” said Moshisho.

He added that the launch of the new system was timely considering the current global situation with COVID-19 since it will eliminate paperwork and physical interactions; situations that are likely to exacerbate the spread of the virus.

The CECM Lands, Hamilton Parseina said the qualitative system will do away with subjective processes that were previously rife at the County Offices.

“This system will get rid of quacks who had previously infiltrated the manual approval processes in our County offices, only qualified professionals will interact with the system,”he said.

The Kajiado Electronic Development Application System (KeDAMS) is a web-based software application that automates the development applications that include planning proposals, architectural building proposals and associated civil, structural engineering designs and inspection processes.

Kajiado becomes the fourth County after Nairobi, Kiambu and Kisumu to launch the Electronic Development Application Management Systems. The Kajiado system has been advanced from all the previously launched ones with enhanced features that seal the loopholes exhibited by the systems in the other counties.

As part of the continuous reforms at the Department of Lands, The Kajiado County Government has launched issuance of 12,657 new generation plot allotment letters. The brief ceremony at the County Headquarters was presided over by H.E. Joseph Ole Lenku in the presence of the county leadership and members of public.

In his speech, Lenku said the new allotment letters will be issued to land owners in 26 towns after a rigorous validation process carried out by the Lands Department to ascertain legal ownership of parcels of land by the holders. He said the allotment letters have eight extra unique security features that make them impermeable to fraudulent activities from land cartels adding that this has given financial institutions the confidence to use them as collateral for credit services.

He said Kajiado continues being a model County for development in all fronts and was it not for the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, a big Lands conference was in the pipeline to showcase the advancements made since 2017. He was full of praise for all departments for their commitment in helping him realize his development track record as promised in his elections manifesto.

Speaking on matters health, Lenku urged members of the public to heed Ministry of Health Guidelines on social distancing, use of masks and basic hygiene including hand wash and use of sanitizers. He said the Corona Virus infects regardless of genders and age groups; not just the old and sickly as most people have been speculating. He said the County has played its part in mitigating the spread of the virus through setting up and equipping of isolation centres and called on individual responsibility from all residents

“I commend all front-line health workers because through their dedication we have seen a decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases in the County,”said Lenku.

Also present at the function was Speaker Johnson Osoi who expressed his satisfaction with the way the validation exercise was carried out and termed the issuance of the new allotment letters as remedy to historical flaws in issuance of title deeds that had been marred by controversies and underhand dealings that caused anxiety to most land buyers.He further implored upon the Governor to fast track efforts in physical planning of smaller towns in the County to set a good precedence for successive regimes. Osoi assured the support of the County Assembly in this endeavor.

His sentiments were echoed by Hon. Paul Matuyia who said the new allotment letters will rid off land cartels and while members of the public will benefit through access of credit facilities from financial lenders with the letters as security. He requested the Lands Department liaise with a view of finalizing on land disputes cases before tribunals on double allotments of land parcels.

Lands CEC, Hamilton Parseina said the Kajiado Lands Registry had previously been ranked 3rd in the list of the most corrupt in the country but through stringent streamlining measures, the reforms have placed Kajiado as the model bench marking County in matters Lands.

It is expected that 50 towns will be targeted in the next phase of the Validation exercise until all land owners are authenticated and confirmed.