In
order to digitize land records, the Central Land Registry was permanently
closed last year. As a result, it will now reopen on the ArdhiSasa National
Land Management System (NLIMS) at the end of July. The Cabinet Secretary
for Lands and Physical Planning, Ms. Farida Karoney, said that 64,000 of the
84,000 land parcels that had already been gazetted and were slated to move to
the Land Registration Act 2012 had reached maturity while speaking at an alumni
forum at Strathmore University on “The Digitalization of Land Records in
Kenya.”

“According
to the law, we must wait 90 days before closing the old register and switching
to the new one. The 64,000 are being processed right now so that the second
registry in Nairobi can launch. The transition is a step in the process of
removing all parcels from the purview of the statutes that have been repealed
in order to bring them under the 2012 Land Registration Act.

Dr.
Francis Kariuki, a lecturer at the Strathmore University Law School and an
advocate of the High Court of Kenya, addressed the forum and noted that
previous land commissions had described the Kenyan land administration system
as “inefficient, corrupt, and archaic,” necessitating the current
digitalization reforms.

He
noted that the National Land Policy of 2009, which urges “the
consolidation, harmonisation and streamlining of all registration statutes for
clarity and the reduction of bureaucratic bottlenecks,” was in line with
the digitalization of land administration. The beauty of this is that, once all
the other registers are closed, confusion and disorder—both of which parallel
registers encourage—are eliminated. Some people register the same piece of land
up to five times under various registration regimes with the intention of
defrauding Kenyans, according to Ms. Karoney.

The
change is the result of the CS’s earlier announcement that all land titles
registered under the old laws, such as the Indian Transfer of Property Act of
1882, the Government Lands Act (Cap.280), the Registration of Titles Act
(Cap.281), the Land Titles Act (Cap.282), and the Registered Land Act, would
soon be replaced (Cap.300).

“The Nairobi registry and the central registry are the two
registries in Nairobi. The central registry is pending, but the Nairobi
registry is active. We need to complete this registry’s migration before the
gazette notice period expires”, she said.

The
CS recalled that only 19,000 land parcels were on the ArdhiSasa platform when
the Nairobi Registry launched last year, but that number is now expected to
surpass 60,000. Although she expressed regret that the Ministry’s stringent
data interrogation and verification protocol had angered some members of the
public, she insisted that it was necessary to ensure the accuracy, integrity,
and completeness of the information provided on the system.

“Over
the years we have corrupted our data to the extent that it is taking so long to
separate the wheat from the chaff. Many are the instances that you will hear a
customer saying that the system is not working, yet the issue is either the
information on your land parcel is not complete, is not accurate, or the land
was acquired fraudulently. If you have land on the runway of JKIA, how can we
make it available for you to transact?”

In
order to ensure effectiveness, transparency, and justice in the administration
of records and transactional services in the land sector, the CS noted that the
transition was essential. The cadaster is one of this system’s crucial
services, she said. “We are required by the Land Registration Act to geo–reference our property.
This necessitates the need for coordinates that identify a specific land
parcel.

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