Digitisation of land records to attack rot at head office

Lawyer Patrick Kahonge never gives his clients an estimated time for completion of transactions at the Lands ministry. “It can take two days or up to six months to get a response for a straightforward request for information.

Your file may disappear or be found according to a formula that is hard to understand. That makes it tough to devise any coherent work plan,” Mr Kahonge said. Radical new proposals in the proposed national land policy aim to change the entrenched culture of inefficiency and graft at the Lands ministry, which routinely features among the most corrupt government agencies in polls.

A land information management system is being implemented, and officials say many records in the ministry’s custody will be computerised by the middle of next year. The update is expected to make it easier for citizens to access information on land through the automated system without having to bribe clerks and pay brokers at the ministry.

The project, sponsored in part by Sweden, is one of the centrepieces of the national land policy, which was approved by the Cabinet in June. A sessional paper on the subject is expected to be brought to Parliament soon. According to a government official who offered consultancy services to a group of civil society members who were active in the formulation of the new land policy, corruption networks at the Lands ministry are among the most entrenched in any government agency.

“We found that the official payroll indicates 4,800 civil servants are employed by the ministry. But there are about 5,000 people outside the official headcount of employees who also depend on the ministry for a living, travelling there daily to offer services as brokers,” the official, who asked not to be identified, said.

Average term

It was also found that the average term of service for senior civil servants at Ardhi House is close to 20 years, with some office holders retaining their positions for up to 25 years. “We came across cases where even junior civil servants have held certain positions for more than two decades, and any attempts to transfer them were fiercely resisted. This demonstrates the level of patronage they enjoy and vindicates the notion that they are there to advance the interests of corruption cartels,” he said.

Lands Permanent Secretary Dorothy Angote told the Sunday Nation the new policy represents the most comprehensive attempt to refashion the nation’s land laws since independence. “This will give us a systematic platform for addressing issues such as access to land, land use planning and historical injustices,” she said.

“We will replace an outdated legal and institutional framework which we inherited from the colonial administration and which we have not changed since.” Land reform is one of the key objectives of the Agenda Four changes proposed by the panel of eminent personalities led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, that negotiated an end to last year’s post-election stalemate.

The crisis appears to have lent greater urgency to the process of implementing the draft land policy, which was formulated as part of the broader effort to review the Constitution in 2004. One of the highlights of the policy is the introduction of a land information management system and a proposal to automate all land records.

The effort currently under way is partly modelled on a similar project in the central European nation of Hungary, which undertook a major land registry computerisation project in the 1990s following the nation’s transition from communism to a free market economy. Past efforts to reform the way land records are stored at the ministry have run up against the entrenched interests of corrupt networks and career bureaucrats who benefit from the current system.

The crisis last year appears to have demonstrated the urgency of implementing reforms, and the government official told the Sunday Nation there appears to be political will to ensure the current effort succeeds. Already, the old land information banking hall next to Ardhi House, which was a haven for brokers, has been demolished, and in its place a larger, modern hall complete with state-of-the art information technology is going up.

National cadastre

An effort is also under way to create a national cadastre, a comprehensive official register of the extent, value and ownership of all the land in Kenya. Land surveyor Ibrahim Mwathane, who is one of the private sector players involved in the land reform effort, says the land information management system will make a significant difference to ordinary citizens.

“The entry point to any land transaction is information. Too much time and energy is wasted chasing information under the current system, but a national, digitised database that lists attributes of a piece of land such as the name, size, value and what type of land it is, whether agricultural or commercial, would make a world of difference. When you want to sell land, it will also not take long to get a valuation.”

Corruption declined

Ms Angote said the implementation of the information system has begun. The PS said experience from countries that have automated land records indicates that corruption declined as a result since clerks could no longer credibly argue that files had disappeared, a trick they use to extort bribes from citizens.

The computerisation project is being implemented in a partnership between the Lands ministry, the Information, Communication and Technology board and the Swedish development agency Sida. If the government sticks to established timelines, the project will represent a sea change in the management of land in the country.

In addition to the digitisation of records, the land policy offers a wide range of measures aimed at streamlining the way land is managed in the country. Under the proposed law, power to allocate land will be taken away from the Commissioner of Lands and given to an independent National Land Commission, which will include professionals like surveyors and architects.

The policy also proposes a ban on the allocation of forests, water catchment areas, road reserves, kayas (sacred forest groves), wildlife corridors and mountain tops. It also proposes new means of adjudicating land disputes including the setting up of land courts. Other highlights of the proposed law are:

• Create national land commission, district land boards and community land boards and computerisation of land registries to reduce corruption in the process of accessing land records.
• Facilitate public access to beaches, lakes, rivers and fish landing sites unless restricted due to environmental fragility or security reasons.
• Investigate historical injustices and recommend mechanisms for their resolution.
• Develop and review a national housing policy.
• Introduce alternative dispute management regimes to involve communities at the local level.