Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony this week signed a directive that all survey work in the county to be carried out by the County Government/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 30 – The Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK) has faulted the directive issued by Kericho County earlier this week which delegated all land and mapping duties to the county land administration, leading to closure of the National Survey offices in the region.
According to the institution’s chairman Abraham Samoei, the directive contradicts land laws and Acts that govern land mapping and surveying in the country.
“ISK and other licensed surveyors reject the move by Kericho County to introduce devolved regulation of our professional practice.”
“The National Survey offices that the County Government seeks to close are established under the Survey Act Cap 299 and buttressed by the Land Act 2012, Land Registration Act and the Constitutional Advisory Opinion Reference Act no 2 of 2014,” he said.
Samoei noted that the county and sub-county land offices were set to bring the National Government services close to the county residents with mapping of international and county boundaries.
He further said that if the directive was to be implemented as it is, it would paralyze crucial land processes in the county thereby denying the public from accessing crucial services offered by the national land offices.
“We note that the closure will negatively affect members of the public seeking services in the National Survey offices. The move will deny the people a chance to get certificates of titles for their land among other services,” Samoei said.
Kericho Governor Paul Chepkwony this week signed a directive that all survey work in the county to be carried out by the County Government and also directed surveyors who wished to work in the county had to be registered by the county administration.
While issuing the directive, Chepkwony said the Kericho County Assembly had approved the Survey and Mapping Act 2015, No 4 of 2015 which established the Directorate of Surveys, an office which is meant to offer county public service and it is also responsible for coordinating and regulating land survey in the county.
Samoei noted that although the Kericho County Assembly acted in recognition of the County Survey Act, clause 124 was erroneous and conferred the seal of Survey of Kenya on the county government.
He also said that the Act rendered itself redundant by duplicating most of provisions in the National Survey Act which is currently applied uniformly across Kenya.
“The law seems to have been un-procedurally passed as key stakeholders affected by the bill were not involved in the legislation process as stipulated in the Kenyan constitution,” the chairman said.
The institution urged the governor to revoke the order and consider engaging the relevant land stakeholders to address emerging issues related to survey within the county.
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