Land ministry to digitise all records in 66 registries by 2020

The first phase of the digitisation of land records in Kenya will be complete by the end of 2020, Land Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney has said.

Speaking during the Association of Women Accountants in Kenya (AWAK) meeting held at the Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa in Mombasa Wednesday, the CS said the ministry is working with a multi-agency team to set up the system.

She added that the records will be put in a secure digital space with some 66 land registry offices in the country set to be fully digitised.

“Many Kenyans have suffered because their land documents in the registry have been disappearing. We want to secure the online platform to hinder the crooks from replicating the same trend,” Ms Karoney said.

MISSING FILES

The CS said some problems the ministry wants to face out include missing files and one piece of land having several title deeds.

She said important services such as survey and registry records will be the first to be digitised.

“It can take up to 10 years to fully digitise but we will do it service to service. We want people to access services from the comfort of their homes with different access levels and security levels," the CS said.

She added that Kenyans should use their land productively to benefit themselves and the country at large.

“Land is an economic resource that can be used to transform lives and not to keep it for economic status,” Ms Karoney said, adding that citizens should use the resource wisely as Kenya’s population is growing and as such, with proper use of land, the country can sustainably provide enough food for its people.

“The population is growing day by day and we should open our eyes to see how we can sustain ourselves as a country by putting idle land into agricultural use,” she added.

LAND CHIP

Ms Karoney said that her ministry aspires to issues land owners with a chip card which has details of all parcels of land that an individual owns.

She expressed her commitment to ensuring that digitisation is achieved.

“We want to make sure that you can access the services of the Ministry of Land online from the comfort of your living room. That is ongoing work and we are committed to see it is done,” she said.

The CS said that there is need to have a serious discussion on land use in the country.

“If you have 20 acres, what are you doing with it? In other countries, if you don’t use it, it is taken by the state. But because in Kenya we are emotionally [attached to] land, we have to carefully manoeuvre and request you to use the land. Why do you have agricultural land and you still buy vegetables from your local shop? Are you really serious?” she posed.

She said land is an economic resource and asked Kenyans to use it to transform their lives and not to keep it just for social status.