Opinion: Fortunes are changing for everyone

Law Society of Kenya members

Lawyers are up in arms! Why? Because the Government is digitising all land transactions.

Through the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the legal fraternity took to court to stop the digitisation, ostensibly because there is no appropriate legal framework to execute the process and, in their view, too many rural folk will be disenfranchised by the proposed system.

Unfortunately, they had let the cat out of the bag in their initial objections – potential loss of revenue that accrues from conveyancing.

One can actually understand the lawyers’ concern, considering there is a sector of the legal practice, comprising several lawyers and law firms, whose only source of revenue is land transactions.

 This group of individuals is likely to suffer significant loss if they are bypassed through the digital system. But, lawyers are not the first to be unsettled by the digital revolution. Recently, there was an uproar among taxi operators over the invasion of their space by Uber – the global digital taxi system.

They appealed to the government to outlaw or at least control the taxi operator, to help protect their tuff. The story was the same for media houses during the contentious migration to the digital broadcasting platform. Major media houses fought tooth and nail to remain analogue.

 The banks had their season with the advent of M-Pesa. They claimed M-Pesa was not only an unlicensed intruder into their sacred banking territory, but it also exposed customers to serious security breaches.

Interestingly, mobile banking has since proved to be a major boost in the banking industry, and M-Pesa was recently given a global thumbs-up as a robust money transfer platform. In church, Bible printers and publishers are having to adjust to the impact of digital Bibles – especially Internet based Bibles – on consistent revenues for translation and production of Scripture.

PRINTING PRESS

There are also pastors and preachers who speak against the use of digital Bibles in church, with some requiring congregants to wave their Bibles in the air before the sermon begins. Truth be told, there were no books in Jesus’ days. Instead the Bible was available on scrolls, until the printing press revolutionised publishing, in much the same way digital books are doing today.

The reality is that digital tectonics are causing more than just tremors in our lives. Whole businesses have come tumbling down, while entire product lines have disappeared into history.

The video projector, for example, literally killed the overhead and reel projectors. But, it is also on its own deathbed, with the advent of the LED screens. The death of Kodak is a sad one because they reportedly ignored early warnings on the potential impact of digital photography.

Likewise, when a Swiss watchmaker invented the quartz watch, his superiors rejected the idea. It was taken and patented by the Japanese and Americans. Switzerland lost up to 70 per cent of the watch market.

Studies have shown that organisations that stay innovative have a distinct advantage in a global competitive environment. This requires leaders with a learning attitude, ready to explore and adapt to changing times.

Henry Ford once announced, “I’m looking for a lot of men with an infinite capacity for not knowing what can’t be done.” For a fact, this is the only antidote to sliding into irrelevance. As Victor Hugo, the great 19th century French writer, once said, “There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.”

The reality that faces us is that digital technology is an idea whose time has come. It may be resisted, but it is unstoppable. With globalisation as its close relative, the duo will overrun anyone or anything that stands on the way – be it in government, corporate, religious, or professional sectors.

In this digital age, fortunes are changing for everyone. That is why LSK should get ahead of the game by coming up with innovative ways of running the profession in a rapidly changing environment.

They should engage government on strategies for digitising other legal processes that have stood on the way to effective and efficient service delivery. Furthermore, their input could also help universities and law schools restructure the legal curriculum to address the current and emerging needs in the digital and global environment. Otherwise, it seems rather unlearned for learned friends to stand in the path of the digital wave.