Kisumu County Governor Jack Ranguma has been urged to urgently operationalise the County Land Management Board to beat the deadline set by the National Land Commission (NLC).
The Executive Director of Transform Empowerment for Action Initiative Collins Owuor said the NLC has already given counties up to next week to put in place land boards in their respective regions.
He said the commission had issued circular directing counties to put their houses in order by 15th April this year.
Addressing the press in Kisumu, Owour said the process of establishing the land board has been completed in the county.
Owuor said interviews for the board members were done last year and vetting carried out this year in February yet the board is not functioning.
He said matters of land is very critical and it is improper that for the last one year there is no county land board to help locals transact their land deals.
“Most of the county residents are farmers and they rely on their land for many things, how they will acquire land title deeds if there is no land board in place,” he said.
Owuor said the county residents risked being the victims if the directive is not adhered to.
“The fate of services such as application for allocation of land, sub-division of land, renewal of leases amongst other requests to channel to the commission will be in limbo if the directive is not implemented,” said Owuor.
He questioned how poor people will travel to Nairobi to transact the land deals urging Ranguma to save residents from this arduous task by putting in place the board before the expiry of the date given.
Owuor asked the county government of Kisumu to move with speed and operationalised the board within 24 hours lest he moves to court.
Only 30 County Land Management Boards have been established and are in operation across the country while 17 counties are yet to put in places theirs.