CS sets June deadline for digitisation of land records
Lands, Housing, and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary Zacharia Njeru. The ministry of Lands must assert its authority and take robust action against fraudulent land dealers.
The Ministry of Lands has set a June deadline for digitisation of land records through the National Land Information System (Ardhisasa).
Lands Cabinet Secretary Zacharia Mwangi Njeru said the process is at an advanced stage with the exercise expected to close in the next four months.
“I may not know the number of land records digitised so far but it is a continuous process. I can assure you that we have done quite a lot. There have been challenges in terms of staff, much of that work is technical, but we are doing well,” he said.
The CS said his ministry is currently running a programme that has focused on four areas: digitisation of land records and processes, titling , policy and legal framework and decentralisation of land services.
“What we are doing is to rearrange those records so that now we can upload them in the system ready for transaction,” he said in Mombasa during a sitting with the Senate’s Lands committee.
According to Mr Njeru, digitisation of land records will eradicate historical land problems such as loss of documentation, multiplicity of titles, destruction of records and missing records.
Once complete, Ardhisasa will provide a platform through which Kenyans will be able to do land transactions, previously done manually, online.
Professionals in the land sector have been pushing for an audit of Ardhisasa amid persistent complaints about transaction hitches. Its efficiency has been sluggish and questionable, with transactions for Nairobi County, which were piloted first on Ardhisasa, piling up.
Conveyance lawyers have questioned the frequent stalling of the multi-billion-shilling land transactions in Nairobi, arguing it is complicated to use and has been experiencing regular failure.
In separate memoranda to Mr Njeru, the Law Society of Kenya and the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya have complained that gaps in the system have affected land transactions.
At the same time , the National Lands Commission (NLC) has said that it needs more than Sh38 billion to settle compensation claims.
NLC Chairman Gershom Otachi said the commission has not been able to honour compensation claims for Kenyans affected by various government projects due to lack of funding.
“This is what is supposed to be paid but has not been paid due to unavailability of funds,” said Mr Otachi.
“Every year we come up with our wish list, for instance, we can ask for like Sh6 billion but then end up with something like Sh1 billion. On an annual basis we are looking for something between Sh5 billion and Sh6 billion but we rarely get anything close to it,” he said.
Mr Otachi said the deficits have affected the commission’s ability to effectively carry out its mandate.
“What the law provides is that when we start a project we should have the funds for compensation deposited with the commission upfront, but in reality that does not happen. That is why there are many complaints from project affected persons, they are continually streaming to our offices following their money but unfortunately we do not have those funds,” he said.
“We undertake the process, do the evaluation, issue the awards and then we request for funds. We are very efficient in paying once we get the funds but the problem is the availability of the funds,” he added.
Mr Otachi also said that civil litigation has tied up close to Sh7 billion, which is supposed to be paid as compensation to people affected by the government projects.
