Kirinyaga County administration has commenced verification of plots in the long-disputed 17,000-acre South Ngariama Settlement Scheme in Mwea East.
The exercise aims to identify beneficiaries, resolve ownership disputes and pave the way for the issuance of title deeds to more than 8,200 residents.
The four-day verification exercise, led by Lands and Physical Planning Executive Samuel Kanjobe, saw residents identify and confirm the plots they claim while county officials documented ownership details and recorded disputes.
"We are able to identify the fake documents that have been presented by various people. Those found presenting fake documents will swear affidavits and, if they lie under oath, we will charge them before the courts for perjury," Kanjobe warned.
The county has enlisted its legal department to oversee the verification process. Each claimant is required to swear an affidavit and record a statement before their ownership documents are considered.
The process is aimed at addressing disputed claims that have affected the ownership process for decades.
Kanjobe said officials had encountered cases involving conflicting ownership documents, including instances where different individuals were claiming the same plot using separate sets of documents.
"We want to deal with both the people falsifying documents and those posing as beneficiaries. If your documents are genuine, you have nothing to worry about. Anyone presenting forged records will face the law," he said.
The county is also documenting public land within the settlement scheme to create space for social amenities and protect it from encroachment.
Kanjobe said the county would prepare a development control plan for the area to guide future growth and address unplanned developments that have emerged over the years.
He noted that previous planning did not adequately provide for critical public utilities, such as waste disposal sites, prompting the county to incorporate them into the new planning framework.
"We shall prepare planning and development control documents for this area because people are putting up buildings in an uncoordinated manner. We also need to provide space for facilities such as dumping sites and other public amenities that were previously not planned for," he said.
The verification exercise follows an earlier adjudication process in which residents physically identified the land they occupy before ownership interests were recorded.
According to Kanjobe, about 795 land disputes have so far been recorded by the adjudication office, delaying the issuance of title deeds.
He said the matter is before the court, with the next mention scheduled for October 19, when progress on dispute resolution will be presented.
The South Ngariama Settlement Scheme has remained one of Kirinyaga’s most contested land issues for nearly six decades.
The scheme was established in the late 1960s to settle landless families after independence.
However, overlapping allocations, incomplete adjudication, disputed records and prolonged legal disputes left thousands of beneficiaries without title deeds, triggering recurring ownership conflicts.
Residents welcomed the latest verification exercise, expressing optimism that it could bring certainty over ownership and support development in the area.
"We have waited for this process for a very long time. Once every person gets their rightful plot, people will build, infrastructure will follow and we shall finally live like other Kenyans as we continue waiting for our title deeds," said Peter Gatimu, a resident.
The verification exercise is expected to inform the finalisation of ownership records before remaining disputes are resolved, paving the way for the issuance of title deeds and addressing a land dispute that has persisted for 59 years.
