1,000 Homa Bay schools lack title deeds

More than 1,000 public secondary and primary schools in Homa Bay County risk being locked in land disputes due to a lack of land title deeds.

The county has 1,089 public primary schools and 312 public secondary schools, but about 1,022 lack title deeds, accounting for 73 per cent.

This means only about 379 public schools have title deeds, representing 27 per cent.

Even though the schools that lack title deeds have existed for many decades, they risk being locked in serious land disputes.

The revelation emerged during a stakeholder meeting convened by Homa Bay County Commissioner Ronald Mwiwawi at Ogande Girls High School.

In the meeting, a number of head teachers complained that they lacked title deeds for their schools.

Mwiwawi said some schools had reported cases where their land was being grabbed. The grabbing takes place in the name of encroaching school boundaries because the schools lack title deeds.

“We have heard of cases where some people have encroached on school land. This makes the schools have undefined boundaries,” Mwiwawi said.

The Commissioner told the head teachers to secure land title deeds for their schools.

“I want every school head to put a lot of effort into securing title deeds for their schools. This will prevent land disputes,” Mwiwawi said.

The administrator wants 80 per cent of the schools in the county to acquire title deeds by December this year.

He urged the head teachers to engage officials in the lands ministry to accelerate the process of getting the document.

“We want as many school headteachers as possible to secure land title deeds. Let them work closely with the Ministry of Lands officials,” Mwiwawi said.

In some schools, the disputes on land ownership have already begun. This results from the fact that some residents now claim ownership of the land that their grandparents or parents donated for the construction of the schools.

The County Lands Registrar, Edward Bosire, said he was aware of cases where grandchildren or children of people who donated land to schools were pressuring the schools for compensation.

However, Bosire explained that no compensation should be given if the land was donated unconditionally.

“I am aware of cases where some families are now pushing school managers to compensate them for land which their grandparents or parents donated for the construction of the schools. But the compensation is not possible because the donation was made without any condition,” Bosire said.

Bosire said they had they were working with the Ministry of Lands headquarters to approve a paper that will be taken to the Cabinet for public institutions to have compulsory acquisition of donated land.

He sensitised the teachers on how to solve boundary disputes and how to subdivide land between primary and secondary schools adjacent to each other.

“Let teachers know that the government does not charge a lot of money for processing title deeds. They should not fear the process,” said Bosire.