Ministry Of Lands Goes Fully Digital

As from the 26th of April, the Ministry of Lands department in Kenya have taken on a new digital approach. Any person wishing to perform any land transactions at the Nairobi Land Registry will be required to access the services online as Ardhi House goes fully digital.

The last documents that the registry will process manually were the ones received before the close of business on the 25th of April, before President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the system on the 26th.

This comes as the ministry plans to close its Nairobi Registry for a day to allow it to shift operations online through the Lands Information Management System (LIMS). The system was rolled out in 2018.

In an advert in the daily newspapers, Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney stated that the closure comes after the successful completion of LIMS and it was to give way for migration to the digital platform.

“The system is now complete for the management of land records and transactional services as an anchor for efficient, secure and transparent operations in the lands sector,” she said.

Once the system goes live, Ardhi House will no longer accept manual land documents at the Nairobi Registry as they will do away with manual land transactions. The city registry will also close all its manual registers.

Services that move online include transfer of ownership, issuance of consent, valuation requests, payment and issuance of land rent clearance certificate.

According to the ministry, the new system will enhance investor confidence through reduced timelines in registering property and protecting investors and property owners from fraudulent land transactions.

The digital initiative is meant to improve service delivery by dealing with missing documents, failed file tracking system, tattered records in the land registries, and long timelines of service delivery, among other challenges.