By Alloys Musyoka
A major land dispute has erupted in Kwale County after residents of Kasemeni village in Lunga Lunga Constituency massively rejected and returned land title deeds recently issued to them by President William Ruto.
"We took these papers to the bank expecting to get loans to improve our lives and invest in our farms," said Moses Makelele, a resident of Kasemeni. "Instead, the banks told us these papers hold zero value for that purpose. They are questioning the validity of the documents, leaving us with certificates that are practically meaningless."
The aggrieved locals claim the highly publicized land certificates are riddled with critical errors, are being rejected by commercial banks, and drastically shrink their ancestral property boundaries.
The grassroots rebellion directly challenges the executive's ambitious land reform drive at the Coast.
The state recently launched a massive campaign to issue thousands of title deeds across Kwale County to permanently settle the region’s historical squatting and land tenure injustices.
However, the celebratory atmosphere has quickly soured into widespread frustration.
Financial Institutions Reject the Documents
According to the residents, who gathered in large numbers to formally surrender the documents to their local Chief, the new titles have proved useless for economic empowerment.
Many had hoped to use the documents as collateral to secure financial credit, but local banks have reportedly turned them away
Drastic Reductions in Ancestral Land Sizes
Beyond the legal paperwork, the physical boundaries of the new allocations have sparked intense anger. Locals state that the newly demarcated plots are vastly smaller than the multi-acre ancestral lands they have occupied and cultivated for generations.
The community pointed out that the survey process ignored the actual sizes of original family holdings. In Kasemeni, residents cited extreme instances where massive, multi-generational families of up to 30 people were allocated a mere 1.5 acres, while separate families of five were forced onto identical, unviable plots.
"The math simply does not add up," protested Julius Kaema, a local leader guiding the return process. "How do you squeeze a family of 30 onto an acre and a half? We are not asking the government for free extra land; we are simply demanding that the measurements on these papers reflect the actual size of the properties we already own."
Government Denials Dismissed by Locals
The mass return of the titles comes only days after Government Spokesperson Charles Owino publicly downplayed reports of structural flaws in the Coast land adjudication process. Owino strongly denied any underlying state conspiracy to dispossess Coastal residents of their land, maintaining that any technical survey errors would be handled routinely through standard legal channels.
Unmoved by the spokesperson's remarks, the people of Kasemeni are demanding a complete cancellation of the disputed certificates and the entire survey plan. They are calling directly on the Ministry of Lands and the National Land Commission (NLC) to freeze the current framework, order an immediate, transparent resurvey of the area, and ensure that every resident receives a verified, error-free title deed that respects their historical land rights.