MPs decry slow digitisation of Lands system, claim cartels behind delay

Lands PS Nixon Korir before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) committee at Bunge Towers, Parliament, Nairobi on August 4,2026. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Lawmakers have criticised the delayed digitisation of the Lands Management Information System, claiming that powerful individuals within the Ministry of Lands were frustrating the process to ensure corruption thrives.

MPs sitting in the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) claimed that despite the digitisation process being launched in April 2021, unnamed individuals from within the Ministry had seemingly colluded with owners with huge tracts of land to impede the implementation of the system, much to the chagrin of Kenyans.

This came on a day that the Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir announced that the government was intent on expending Sh16 billion for the full digitisation of the Lands system within a period of five years.

“As far as we lawyers are concerned, this digitisation process is being frustrated internally by those individuals who benefit from the lands process being manual. Because how do you explain that for the last six years we have been discussing this issue but the Ministry is yet to fully digitize the system?” posed Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo.

His sentiments came in the wake of an Auditor General report for the 2023/24 financial year that questioned the efficiency and effectiveness of the digital system on management of land administration. It revealed that out of the 83 land registries operated by the State Department of Lands, only two registries in Nairobi and Murang’a stations were fully digitised and migrated to the digital platform. It however noted that automation of services had been done for most processes within the State Department’s different modules.

Turkana Central MP Joseph Namuar subsequently pointed out that the delay in digitisation of the process had disadvantaged frontier counties such as Turkana which have what was previously referred to as trust land.

“Corruption thrives where land documents are not digitised. The process of attaining a hundred percent digitisation has stalled, and we want to know why. You have to ask yourself, if this continues when will counties such as Turkana be at par with the rest of the country in terms of Service delivery,” posed Namuar.

Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo sought to understand the time frame within which the Ministry will have completed the full implementation of the project to ensure that every Kenyan, regardless of their location, could easily access the services of the land system.

“If fully digitised, this system would be a game changer but it seems that individuals with huge tracts of land frustrating the digitization of the Lands management system. They are afraid of the public knowing exactly how much land they hold,” stated Mugo.

Samburu West MP Naisula Lesuuda said that if it was an issue of resources, the Ministry ought to make it known to Parliament exactly how much is needed to complete the digitisation process. Her sentiments were lauded by Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo who claimed that officials from the Lands Ministry were taking advantage of the manual system by charging more than the subscribed service fees.

Case and point, he said, the gazetted charge for a land title search is Sh1,000 but Kenyans were being charged Sh3,500.

But in his response, Land PS Nixon Korir, who had appeared before the Committee, submitted that a major challenge that has hindered the digitisation process was inadequate budgetary allocation to support the extensive requirements of digitisation activities.

He said that the initial implementation plan could not be fully realised due to financial constraints and limited resources (both human and equipment) necessary to undertake the proposed digitization exercise.

“To update the committee, now we have the World Bank project which has apportioned the money from the start of this financial year. The Worldd Bank has given us Sh16 billion to run the project within the next five years. The entire budget that we need to digitize the entire country is Sh30 billion but with the current budget we should be able to fast track the project's implementation,” said the PS.

He also pointed out that following the launch of Ardhisasa Land Management System, it had successfully rolled out the system in Nairobi, Murang’a, Mombasa Island, and Isiolo, with significant progress being made in Mombasa Mainland and Marsabit, where records have already been captured within the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).

He also noted that digitisation activities are currently underway in Machakos, Kajiado, and Baringo Counties.

“In addition, the State Department has deployed key modules such as ArdhiPay, the payment gateway for all land-related transactions, and the National Stamp Duty Module (NSDM), which facilitates stamp duty payments countrywide, including in counties that are yet to be digitized. Further services are under development to enhance efficiency, transparency, consistency, and accuracy in service delivery. The automation of these services across the country has contributed positively to improved service delivery and strengthened land administration and management,” said PS Korir.

The State Department of Lands and Physical Planning launched the digital platform on 27th April, 2021 in a bid to integrate Information Communication Technology (ICT) for efficiency and effective management of land administration.

Billed as the silver bullet to ward off quacks and fraudsters in the land management services, it has, however, failed to fully take off for years.