Why it’s prudent to digitise land record management

Farida Karoney

Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney launches Ardhisasa communication strategy on December 23, 2020.

What you need to know:

  • Kenya is now well-positioned to share land information widely, increasing its value.
  • The security of land records will be enhanced, double allocation eliminated and rent-seeking greatly reduced.

Land is central to Africa’s economy. Good land management is, therefore, a prerequisite to unlocking its full potential. Hence, technology has become a helpful tool. The “Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa” underscores the importance of computerised land information management systems to African Union member states. Manual systems, they observe, are inaccessible and expensive to the user public and need to be redesigned and technologically upgraded.

“Land Management Information Systems in the Knowledge Economy” contains discussion and guiding principles on the establishment of land information management systems. This, and the “Framework”, both published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, are helpful high-level frameworks to Nations developing land policies and land information management systems.

Kenya recently launched Ardhisasa, an online national land information management system, joining the few other African countries that have embraced computerised management of land records such as South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana. 

The system is GIS-based, making it possible to display different layers of land information separately or in combination. It is possible to distinguish between public and private land, which helps to arrest landgrabs. It will be developed incrementally with the first phase covering Nairobi City County.

It is also possible to use position values, or coordinates, to know the accurate location and shape of a land parcel. Through Ardhisasa, attribute data such as ownership details and cadastral maps for Nairobi have been uploaded. Information is geo-referenced, making descriptions of parcels unambiguous.

Security of land records

Kenya is now well-positioned to share land information widely, increasing its value. Landowners, real estate agents, land professionals, property developers, bankers, architects and engineers responsible for housing and road construction should be able to easily access land information through Ardhisasa. Among other gains, the security of land records will be enhanced, double allocation eliminated and rent-seeking greatly reduced.

However, the Lands ministry will need to ensure that protocols allow these diverse user groups to easily access the system. Institutions of higher learning should also be provided with access.

Another continental principle provides that land information management systems encourage and require changes in institutional cultures. On this, the ministry, and most users, are pretty challenged. Over the years, professionals in the ministry and the private sector have embraced analog data and manual methods, which entailed physical interactions. 

Providing a service or data would be treated as a favour, to be appreciated with a ‘reward’. This culture will need to end. The ministry and NLC should organise a sensitisation drive to disabuse all of the old culture and buy them into digital technology.

Lastly, users need to know how to register with the system and whether and how much they will pay.

Mr Mwathane is a licensed surveyor and consultant in land governance. [email protected]