Section 1 of Land Registration Act 2012: Short title.
This Act may be cited as the Land Registration Act, 2012.
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- Section 2 - Interpretation.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
“adjudication officer” has the meaning assigned to it in the Land Adjudication Act, Cap. 284;
“adjudication register” has the meaning assigned to...
- Section 3 - Application.
Subject to section 4, this Act shall apply to—
(a) registration of interests in all public land as declared by Article 62 of the Constitution;
(b) registration of interests in all private land as...
- Section 4 - Limitation of application.
This Act shall not prohibit or otherwise affect the system of registration under any law relating to mining, petroleum, geo-thermal energy or any other rights over land and land-based resources in...
- Section 5 - Conflict with other laws.
Except as otherwise provided in this Act, no other written law, practice or procedure relating to land shall apply to land registered or deemed to be registered under this Act so far as it is...
- Section 6 - Registration units.
(1) For the purposes of this Act, the Commission in consultation with national and county governments may, by order in the Gazette, constitute an area or areas of land to be a land registration unit...
- Section 7 - Land registry
(1) There shall be maintained, in each registration unit, a land registry in which there shall be kept—
(a) a land register, in the form to be determined by the Commission;
(b) the cadastral...
- Section 8 - Community Land Register.
(1) Subject to the legislation on community land made pursuant to Article 63 of the Constitution, there shall be maintained in each registration unit, a community land register in which shall be...
- Section 9 - Maintenance of documents.
(1) The Registrar shall maintain the register and any document required to be kept under this Act in a secure, accessible and reliable format including—
(a) publications, or any matter written,...
- Section 10 - Public access to the register.
Subject to the Constitution and any other law regarding freedom of and access to information, the Registrar shall make information in the register accessible to the public by electronic means or any...
- Section 11 - Seal of Registry
Each registry shall have an official seal, and every instrument bearing the imprint of the seal shall be received in evidence and, unless the contrary is proved, shall be deemed without further proof...
- Section 12 - Appointment of officers
There shall be appointed by the Public Service Commission, a Chief Land Registrar, and such other officers who shall be public officers as may be considered necessary for the effective discharge of...
- Section 13 - Qualifications for appointment of Registrar
(1) A person shall not qualify for appointment as Chief Land Registrar unless such a person—
(a) is a citizen of Kenya;
(b) holds a degree from a university recognized in Kenya;
(c) is an advocate...
- Section 14 - General powers of Land Registrars
The Chief Land Registrar, County Land Registrars or any other land registrars may, in addition to the powers conferred on the office of the Registrar by this Act—
(a) require any person to produce...
- Section 15 - Cadastral map
(1) The office or authority responsible for the survey of land shall prepare and thereafter maintain a map or series of maps, to be known as the cadastral map, for every registration unit.
(2) The...
- Section 16 - Power to alter boundary lines and to prepare new editions
(1) The office or authority responsible for the survey of land may rectify the line or position of any boundary shown on the cadastral map based on an approved subdivision plan, and such correction...
- Section 17 - Approval for further surveys
1) Further surveys may be made for any purpose connected with this Act, but such surveys shall be used to amend the cadastral map only if it is approved by the office or authority responsible for the...
- Section 18 - Boundaries
(1) Except where, in accordance with section 20, it is noted in the register that the boundaries of a parcel have been fixed, the cadastral map and any filed plan shall be deemed to indicate the...
- Section 19 - Fixed boundaries
(1) If the Registrar considers it desirable to indicate on a filed
plan approved by the office or authority responsible for the survey of land, or otherwise to define in the register, the precise...
- Section 20 - Maintenance of boundaries
(1) Every proprietor of land shall maintain in good order the fences, hedges, stones, pillars, beacons, walls and other features that demarcate the boundaries, pursuant to the requirements of any...
- Section 21 - Interference with boundary features
(1) Any person who defaces, removes, injures or otherwise impairs a boundary feature or any part of it unless authorized to do so by the Registrar commits an offence and is liable on conviction to...
- Section 22 - Combinations and subdivisions
(1) Subject to authentication of the cadastral map, if contiguous parcels are owned by the same proprietor and are subject in all respects to the same rights and obligations, the Registrar, on...
- Section 23 - Reparcellation
(1) Subject to section 15 and authentication of the cadastral map, on the application of the proprietors of contiguous parcels who are desirous of changing the layout of their parcels, and with the...
- Section 24 - Interest conferred by registration
Subject to this Act—
(a) the registration of a person as the proprietor of land shall vest in that person the absolute ownership of that land together with all rights and privileges belonging or...
- Section 25 - Rights of a proprietor
(1) The rights of a proprietor, whether acquired on first registration or subsequently for valuable consideration or by an order of court, shall not be liable to be defeated except as provided in this...
- Section 26 - Certificate of title to be held as conclusive evidence of proprietorship
(1) The certificate of title issued by the Registrar upon registration, or to a purchaser of land upon a transfer or transmission by the proprietor shall be taken by all courts as prima facie evidence...
- Section 27 - Transfer without valuable consideration
1) A proprietor who has acquired land, a lease or a charge by transfer without valuable consideration shall hold it subject to—
(a) any unregistered rights or interests subject to which the...
- Section 28 - Overriding interests
Unless the contrary is expressed in the register, all registered land shall be subject to the following overriding interests as may for the time being subsist and affect the same, without their being...
- Section 29 - Actual notice
Every proprietor, at the time of acquiring any land, lease or charge, shall be deemed to have had notice of every entry in the register relating to the land, lease or charge and subsisting at the time...
- Section 30 - Certificate of title and Certificate of lease
(1) The Registrar may, if requested by a proprietor of land or a lease where no certificate of title or certificate of lease has been issued, issue to him or her a certificate of title or a...
- Section 31 - Production of certificate
(1) If a certificate of title or a certificate of lease has been issued, then, unless it is filed in the registry or the Registrar dispenses with its production, it shall be produced on the...
- Section 32 - Dispositions of leases and charges
On the registration of any disposition of a lease or charge, the original and the duplicate of the lease or charge shall, unless the Registrar is satisfied that they cannot be produced, be produced to...
- Section 33 - Lost or destroyed certificates and registers
(1) Where a certificate of title or certificate of lease is lost or destroyed, the proprietor may apply to the Registrar for the issue of a duplicate certificate of title or certificate of lease, and...
- Section 34 - Searches and copies
A person who requires an official search in respect of any parcel, shall be entitled to receive particulars of the subsisting entries in the register, certified copies of any document, the cadastral...
- Section 35 - Evidence
(1) Every document purporting to be signed by a Registrar shall, in all proceedings, be presumed to have been so signed unless the contrary is proved.
(2) Every copy of or extract from a document...
- Section 36 - Dispositions and dealings affecting land
(1) A lease, charge or interest in land shall not be disposed of or dealt with except in accordance with this Act, and any attempt to dispose of any lease, charge or interest in land otherwise than in...
- Section 37 - Transfers
(1) A proprietor may transfer land, a lease or a charge to any person with or without consideration, by an instrument in the prescribed form or in such other form as the Registrar may in any...
- Section 38 - Certificates of payment of rates
(1) The Registrar shall not register any instrument purporting to transfer or to vest any land, a lease of land, situated within the area of a rating authority unless, a written statement, by the...
- Section 39 - Certificates as to payment of rent
(1) The Registrar shall not register an instrument purporting to transfer or create an interest in land, unless a certificate is produced with the instrument, certifying that no rent is owing to the...
- Section 40 - Transfer to take effect immediately
A transfer shall not be expressed to take effect on the happening of any event or on the fulfillment of any condition or at any future time.
- Section 41 - Conditions repugnant to interest transferred
(1) A condition or limitation is void if it purports to—
(a) restrain absolutely a transferee or any other person from disposing of the interest transferred; or
(b) determine the interest of the...
- Section 42 - Transfer of part
No part of the land comprised in a register shall be transferred unless the proprietor has first subdivided the land and duly registered each new subdivision.
- Section 43 - Instruments of dispositions
(1) Every instrument effecting a disposition of land under this Act shall be in the form prescribed in relation to that disposition under this Act or any other written law.
(2) No instrument...
- Section 44 - Executions of instruments in writing
(1) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, every instrument effecting any disposition under this Act shall be executed by each of the parties consenting to it, in accordance with the provisions of...
- Section 45 - Verification of execution
(1) Subject to subsection (3), a person executing an instrument shall—
(a) appear before the Registrar, public officer or other person as is prescribed; and
(b) be accompanied by a credible witness...
- Section 46 - Stamping
An instrument required by law to be stamped shall not be accepted for registration unless it is stamped in accordance with the Stamp Duty Act, Cap. 480.
- Section 47 - Minors
(1) The name of a person under the age of eighteen years may be entered in the register to enable the minor’s interest to be held in trust and shall be registered under the name of the guardian either...
- Section 48 - Agents and persons under disability
(1) Except as provided in subsection (3), no instrument executed by any person as agent for any other person shall be accepted by the Registrar unless the person executing it was authorized in that...
- Section 49 - Gift to person under incapacity
A person with a legal incapacity who has been registered as a proprietor of land, a lease or a charge acquired by way of gift may, repudiate the gift within six months after the person ceases to be...
- Section 50 - Court orders on prejudicial dispositions
The court may order that any interest in private land acquired or received under or through certain prejudicial dispositions of those interests in private land made by a debtor, or the value of those...
- Section 51 - Prejudicial dispositions
(1) A disposition under this Act shall be deemed to prejudice a creditor if—
(a) the person making the disposition is unable to pay all their debts without recourse to that private land or any...