Digitised records to deny land cartels space, assures Uhuru

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday assured the process of digitising land records will secure innocent Kenyans from cartels, middlemen and fraudsters’ exploitation.

He made the remarks as he launched the Ardhisasa platform, a digital land information management system, which also marked the end of manual land transactions in Nairobi.

“Ardhisasa is a Kenyan initiative developed by a team of techies over a three-year period, designed to enhance security of land records, speed up land transactions and curb fraud,” said Uhuru.

The platform was launched at National Geospatial Data Centre in Nairobi, a function also attended by Lands Cabinet Secretary Faridah Karoney and other senior government officials.

So far, 240,000 parcels of land in Nairobi have been digitised.

At the click of a button, Uhuru said, citizens will now be able to carry out various land transactions online, drastically reducing human interaction, delays or any other inconveniences that Kenyans have endured in the land registry, which have been characterised by long queues.

With the advent of Ardhisasa, Uhuru said the issue of missing files, perennial fraud, corruption and illegal land transactions will be a matter of the past.

“This is a system that will ensure a worker who has invested his savings to buy a plot is not confronted after delivering building materials to his new site with warning signs like ‘plot not for sale, danger, trespassers will be prosecuted’,” he said.

 He also said that full roll out of the programme will facilitate resolution of historical land disputes and guarantee the security and sanctity of title deeds, which will bring out the clarion shamba lako, hati safi (your land, clean title).

The project is also expected to help in publishing of Kenya’s first digital topographical map.

Already, a cadaster for Nairobi City Council has been developed, which allows Ministry of Lands to start the process of migration to unitary regime of lands registration to not only cut fraud but also  transaction time.

Digitised registry

He said rolling out a fully digitized registry  in Nairobi sets the pace for the rest of the country, which will be conducted in a phased and gradual manner .

Another 20 counties will be the digital system by the end of the year and project all 47 will be covered by end of next year.

“As we transition fully into land information management system and to safeguard public interest in this national endeavor, I ask all Kenyans to cooperate when called upon to provide any information required to conclude validation of any land records,” said the President.

The process has also seen public land separated from private, with the President assuring that all public land in Nairobi has now been indexed, documented and safeguarded for public use.

 “The platform will benefit all land owners by providing accurate information required to support commercialization of land, properties in a convenient and timely fashion.

It will ensure transparency, efficiency, accountability and aid in dispute resolution thereby dramatically reducing the number of land cases pending in courts,” said Uhuru.

Automated services

The Ministry joins other Government agencies that have also automated their services including office of the Attorney General, Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA), Ministries of Devolution, ICT, Education and Interior respectively.

“While we celebrate, there is still work to be done to streamline and entrench the land reforms that the Jubilee Government initiated in 2013,” he stated.

Digitization of lands and other ongoing projects to consolidate geospatial data, said the President will provide an interface between critical and interrelated government services like business registration services, registration of persons National land Commission, KRA and professional actors.

He said plans are underway to integrate the platform to Huduma Namba system and County Government revenue system so as to enrich the quality of data and enhance service delivery.