Title deed (hati miliki)

"Title deed" is the everyday name for the document the Land Registrar issues once land is registered. Under the Land Registration Act 2012 there are two formal types: a certificate of title, for land held outright (freehold), and a certificate of lease, for land held for a fixed term (leasehold). Titles issued under the older land laws, such as the repealed Registered Land Act and Registration of Titles Act, remain valid and are treated as the new certificates.

The paper itself is evidence, not ownership. The register at the land registry is the record, and the title deed should match it. That is why buyers do an official search before paying anything: the search shows the registered owner, the size of the parcel and any loans, cautions or restrictions on it.

Kenyan law treats a title as prima facie evidence that the person named owns the land. That means a court will accept it unless someone proves otherwise. A title can be cancelled if it was obtained by fraud or misrepresentation the owner took part in, or if it was acquired illegally, unprocedurally or through a corrupt scheme. Courts have applied this even against buyers who did not know about the defect, so the history of the land matters as well as the current document.

When land changes hands, the seller signs a transfer, the buyer pays stamp duty, and the registrar records the new owner and issues a title in the buyer's name. For leasehold land, the lessor's consent and a rent clearance certificate are usually needed first. For agricultural land, Land Control Board consent is needed.

• Nairobi, Mombasa and other towns: most titles are leaseholds (certificates of lease) from the government, and land rent is paid as well as county rates. Many Nairobi parcels have moved to new registers and new parcel numbers under the title conversion programme.
• Central Kenya and rural areas (Kiambu, Murang'a, Nakuru farmland): freehold titles under the old Registered Land Act are common. These are often called "absolute" titles.
• Satellite towns (Kitengela, Ruiru, Syokimau, Juja): many plots are sold by land companies against a single mother title, with individual titles to follow. Until that happens, the buyer has no title deed for their own plot.
• Registries on Ardhisasa: in Nairobi, Murang'a and some other areas, searches and transfers run on the Ministry of Lands' online platform rather than at the counter.