Irate residents storm Nyandarua lands offices, decry poor service delivery

Normal business at Nyandarua Land Registrar’s office in Nyahururu town was on Thursday paralyzed for some hours after irate residents stormed the office protesting poor service delivery.
The residents who were carrying placards said that the office that serves Nyandarua and Samburu counties had been taking a lot of time to process various services.
The angry mob cited use of uncivil language by the land officers, delay of issuance of title deeds and land search results.
While speaking outside the land’s office, the agitated residents called for the immediate transfer of the land registrar Charles Ayienda who they complained was using abusive language against those seeking services while boasting of his connections to senior officers in government.
Led by former Rurii Ward Member of County Assembly Wahome Kamoche, the residents said they could no longer grant titles as security to accused persons in court to secure their release on bond terms as the services provided by the office was taking months.
“Elderly people have been coming here for land search but they end up camping in the offices for months even with bond terms to settle in court but they are forced to spend nights here before acquiring the searches. This young man is using abusive language and disrespecting them,” Kamoche said.
Kamoche who was to present a petition that had been written by the residents to the land officers noted that those seeking services had been forced to camp in Nyahururu town for weeks before accessing the vital documents.
“We have come here to present our petitions to the land registrar urging him to reform or leave the land registry office because we are tired of spending years here seeking services,” said the former MCA.
While citing a case of an elderly woman who had spent more than a week visiting the office seeking land search result, Kamoche called for the immediate transfer of the officer if the situation is not addressed.
John Macharia, a land dealer who displayed some of the documents that had not been signed by the registrar for months, noted that he was at risk of being sued by clients as he had failed to issue them with titles.
The mob appealed to the government to construct land offices in every county to reduce congestion that is currently being witnessed in the office.
“We are appealing to the government to build land offices in each and every county and also employ enough staff to handle land issues. We are using this office with Laikipia, Nyandarua and Samburu,” said John Njoroge another resident.
Pleading with the irate residents, the land registrar who had locked himself in his office for hours admitted several claims raised citing understaffing and reshuffle of the staff by the ministry as cause of delayed services.
“I have received your petition and I agree there are delays but some of these delays are due to the recent reshuffle of staff that brought us new faces who are not acclimatized to this office and the region,” he said.
Ayienda said that he was overwhelmed as he had to appear in courts, attend to the field where there are disputes and also handle office matters such as signing documents.
Since the officer came to office in 2018, the land office had shown sanity as he had been able to eliminate brokers who for a long time flocked the Nyahururu office.
A land officer who sought anonymity alleged that the protest had been sponsored by the brokers who were angry with his move to remove them from office.
By James Thuku/David Njoroge