Governor Amason Jeffa Kingi of Kilifi has announced plans to settle squatters and improve `basic infrastructure in informal settlements within the county’s urban centres. Kingi said he would partner with the National Government and the World Bank to issue title deeds to residents in various informal settlements and pave build roads, water pipelines and sewerage systems as well as install street and flood lights in the informal settlements. Speaking while issuing 867 title deeds to the residents of Muyeye and Kibokoni/Kwa Ndomo informal settlements of Malindi town, Mr. Kingi said the plan was geared towards improving the lives of dwellers.
` He said the national and county government would achieve this through the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP) being funded jointly by the World Bank and the national and county governments. Already, Muyeye, Maweni and Kibokoni informal settlements have benefited from the project, he said adding that similar projects would be undertaken in Kisumu Ndogo in Malindi town, Jiwe Jeupe in Watamu, Mariakani, Shingila, Tobora, KKB and Mtaa informal settlements. Governor Kingi urged residents who get title deeds not to sell their land, as this would frustrate the government’s efforts to address landlessness and the squatter menace in the county.
He said said the tittle deeds being given out are part of the government plan to help address poverty by ensuring locals have land ownership documents. He said the county government in collaboration with the State Department for Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning were in the final stages of the issuance of additional 2,944 title deeds in 10 settlements. When you have land ownership documents, you are at peace because you know nobody will come and threaten you with eviction,” he said adding, the title deeds will cushion and prevent vulnerable families from evictions, ensure cohesion of beneficiaries and eradicate existing inequalities.”
Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said 14 counties had benefited from the KISIP programme and urged residents who acquire title deeds to resist the temptation of selling them. Muyeye residents Joseph Karisa Chai and Kangómbe Kalume expressed their joy after receiving the documents and vowed not to sell them. “I am happy that I have received my title deed after a long struggle,”Mr. Chai said adding, “I will use this document to get loans and develop the land and under to circumstance will I sell it.”