A cheap plot is not cheap if you cannot legally reach it.
Road access should be part of land due diligence, especially where a property sits behind other parcels or relies on a track crossing private land.
What is an easement?
An easement is a legal right over another parcel of land for a particular purpose.
A right of way is one common form.
Kenya’s Land Registration Act provides for easements and analogous rights and recognises rights of way within the land-registration framework.
You can read the relevant provisions in the Land Registration Act.
Physical access is not always legal access
A vehicle track through a neighbour’s farm may have existed for years.
That does not automatically prove that the buyer of your parcel has a registered, permanent right to use it.
Before buying, establish whether access is:
- a public road
- a surveyed road reserve
- a registered easement or right of way
- a private arrangement
- informal permission that could later be withdrawn
The distinction matters once ownership changes or relations with neighbours deteriorate.
Check the title and survey information
An official search can reveal registered interests, but access may also require reviewing survey plans and the physical layout.
Ask a surveyor to help where the road position or boundary is unclear.
Useful documents can include:
- the title or lease
- official search
- Registry Index Map or deed plan where applicable
- survey plan
- mutation documents
- easement instrument or registration entry
What if the plot is landlocked?
Do not assume a neighbour will continue allowing access after you purchase.
Resolve the legal access issue before completion.
Your advocate and surveyor can determine what rights currently exist and what would need to be created or registered.
A seller’s promise that “everyone uses this road” is useful context, not a substitute for a legal right.
Easements can also burden your land
You may be buying a parcel over which someone else has rights.
That could include rights for:
- access
- drainage
- utilities
- pipes
- power infrastructure
- other registered purposes
Understand where the easement runs and how it affects your intended building footprint.
Maintenance can become part of the arrangement
The Land Registration Act allows an easement grant to contain agreements about contributing to construction, maintenance or repair of a way, drainage installation or other work forming part of the easement.
That means access can have ongoing obligations as well as rights.
Walk the access route
During a site visit, do not inspect only the plot.
Drive or walk the entire route from a public road to the property.
Check:
- road width
- pinch points
- gates
- bridges or drainage
- whether the route crosses other titles
- whether a normal vehicle can use it in wet weather
- whether a proposed building could block it
Access affects value
Two similar plots can have very different utility if one fronts a public road and the other depends on a disputed passage.
A buyer should price the actual access position, not the seller’s description of future plans.
Put access on the due diligence checklist
Before paying a deposit, ask one direct question:
What legal route gives this parcel access to a public road?
Then verify the answer against the documents and the ground.