Land ministry in fresh bid to digitise records, deals

Economy

Land ministry in fresh bid to digitise records, deals

Monday, October 28, 2019 11:38

By JAMES KARIUKI

Kenya has renewed interest in digitising its land records that will culminate in establishment of an online transaction portal.

This is four years after the first attempt was shot down by lawyers who argued their role — both as commissioners for oaths and as land deal agents — would be rendered redundant.

The line ministry now says a lands information management system (Lims) could be up and running by next year after it invited software developers last week to set up and operationalise the platform.

Once activated, all land deals will be conducted on an online platform from anywhere, via a website or a mobile App portal that provides a front office customer and a back end interface.

“The upgrading should include a file tracking system, an electronic document management system (EDMS), a custom workflow management system for all functional areas from property registration, endorsement and assessment, land rent management and accounting,” the ministry says in tender documents.

“It should enable users to securely administer, value, report as well as bulk process land registration instruments, data conversion and have an extraction module that is integrated to the revenue systems in creative and innovative ways.”

The new platform could end decades-old instances where files go missing and records altered thereby facilitating irregular land dealings worth billions of shillings.

Lack of an effective Lims platform was identified as a major impediment to business with registration and transfer of land taking over 49 days while approvals for commencement of construction of major multibillion-shilling investments in Nairobi took longer with some developers waiting for a year.

“The system should restrict only to authorised individuals the ability to create, edit and delete file plan components and their identifiers. The system should complete audit trail of all document edits to be automatically created, and ability to print/ save in electronic form, for submission to regulatory bodies or agencies,” it adds.