Kenya to use Sh12 billion to end land fraud

Cabinet Secretary for ICT Fred Matiang'i during a stakeholders forum of the task force on the review of the broadcasting regulations held on 17/06/2015 in a Nairobi hotel. [Photo/WILLIS AWANDU/STANDARD

Acting Lands Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has told a parliamentary committee that the Government will divert a Sh1.96 billion grant from the ICT ministry to the Lands docket to set up a system that will reduce manipulation of land records.

The money will boost the Sh10 billion already in the 2015/16 budget earmarked for the grand database that will have details of all land parcels in the country, their respective owners, the exact location and size of the land.

"It will be a single source of truth of all information relating to land," said Matiang'i yesterday, adding: "The manual system is prone to abuse and has a lot of confusion and interference. Most of the challenges have to do with human interference in land records and that is why we are going digital."

The CS said he had agreed with the National Lands Commission (NLC) on the details of a system to man the land records and that it would be developed jointly by the ministry and the commission.

"I met the commission and we agreed that there was no reason for us to do separate Lands Information Management System. If we did so, it will be wasteful and will not help this country," he said.

MPs commended the deal between NLC and the ministry, saying it was a signal that finally, the land issues would be addressed from one source. In the meeting chaired by John Kihagi (Naivasha) at the Parliament Buildings, MPs Wilbur Otichillo (Emuhaya), Awiti Bolo (Nyali), Waweru Nderitu (Ndaragwa), Alex Mwiru (Tharaka), and Kimani Ngunjiri (Bahati) said the new-found working relationship between the ministry and the NLC was likely to streamline the management of land.

"A lot of the push and shove between the ministry and NLC was because we did not sit down and read the law together and get an agreed understanding of the clauses. Therefore, we lost a lot of time in mandate friction and politics," said Matiang'i.

The Lands docket has been dogged with claims of missing files, lost or manipulated records and a tug of war between the ministry on one hand and NLC on the other.