Landlords in Kikuyu Sub-County have expressed the importance of working as a team in an effort to strengthen the Nyumba Kumi initiative.
During a meeting chaired by area deputy county commissioner Elias Kithaura in his office on Thursday, the landlords supported and sought to establish a system of registering all tenants who wanted to rent a house in their apartments.
"Since the introduction of the Nyumba Kumi Initiative, criminal activities like rape, theft, drug abuse among other vices had substantially decreased," said Kithaura.
He informed landlords the initiative had no political motives and did not in any way intend to sideline village elders as they contributed a lot to maintain law and order in the area.
Kikuyu OCPD Mutune Maweu cited an incident in which he recovered his stolen property from the landlord’s son house due to cooperation among neighbours.
Kikuyu location senior chief Geoffrey Mbugua informed landlords that registering their plots with administrative officers would not in any way leak information to Kenya Revenue Authority in order for them to collect tax which many feared.
He clarified that the registration details would only be used to help chiefs know people residing in their localities so that they do not harbour those with criminal records.
Muguga Landlords Association chairman James Mungai warned landlords not to hurry to collect rent from prospective tenants without verifying their details.