The Mombasa County Assembly has passed a Motion allowing the county government to purchase the 930 acre Waitiki land in Likoni on behalf of residents who have occupied it as squatters for decades.
The passage of the Motion now rests the tussle between the county and national governments over the procedure to be applied in allocating the land to the squatters.
In January, President Uhuru Kenyatta during his tour at the Coast rejected a proposal by Governor Hassan Joho to give the land to residents for free.
Mr Joho claimed the residents were too poor to pay the Sh182,000 to get title deeds.
The county government has already committed to pay Sh1.25 billion over a 23-year period to ensure residents settle and focus at developing the Coastal region.
The Thursday April 14 Motion was passed unanimously with no objection as the MCAs argued that subjecting the residents to pay the amount was not a healthy decision since most of them were unable to.
Speaker of the County Assembly Thadues Rajwayi praised the move and said it was a rare County Assembly sitting since there was no objection to the Motion.