Access to land data still elusive for most Kenyans- Report

By Steve Umidha

For most Kenyans, substantial barriers still inhibit their access to land information, a new land score card analysis finds.

Based on a special access-to-land information module for public, private, community and disputed lands across 34 counties, the sobering report identifies long delay, high costs, corruption and complexity of legal processes and scarcity of affordable lawyers as major obstacles for citizens seeking legal remedies.

“It is a worrying trend which continues to threaten gains made by the government in its quest to digitize land registry. A lot needs to be done,” said Mwenda Makathimo, a director at Land Development and Governance Institute.

He was speaking during the launch of the Status of Land Governance in Kenya report – a study which found that 51 per cent of the respondents still found that corruption is rife in land transactions and rated it as high, while 61 percent of those polled felt that cost of services at public land offices were above their means – from a sample of 1.036 respondents who took part in the March 2021 survey.

More than half of the respondents also cited nepotism and favoritism, unmotivated members, and gender imbalance as being rife at the Lands Control Board (LCB).

a good percentage of the respondents interviewed further admitted to not being aware of the existence of various online land search systems with little having being achieved since the launch of the National Land Information Management System, known as Ardhi Sasa, launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in April.

The survey was done in March this year– a month before ArdhiSasa launch – a new system that seeks to digitize land records, streamline land transactions and ownership.

Under the new system, a Kenyan can search for land transactions, transfers and registrations in the comfort of her or his home.

At the click of a button, citizens will carry out online transactions, drastically reducing human interactions—a frequent source of fraud and a definite cause of delays and inconveniences.

The system is also expected to eliminate fraud, corruption and manipulation of critical land records as well as long queues at the registries. Further the system is hoped will resolve land problems as it will provide an updated, verified database of land records that are easily and readily available.

Since Independence, land has been an emotive fight for majority of Kenyans, owing to historical injustices, fraud and the manipulation of land documents at Ardhi House.

The new system is part of the reforms in the lands sector that is hoped will solve such matters. Through the new system, all parcels will be migrated to one regime, the Registry Index Maps (Rims) which will then replace deed plans as registration instruments for land – previously used as a conduit for manipulation.