Nairobi, Central land registries closed for digital migration

Ministry of lands and physical planning building.

Nairobi and Central land registries will be closed for 10 days, starting today, as the ministry gears up for online-only transactions. The closure will affect records registry and the banking hall.

The lands offices will remain closed until Friday March 30.

The closure will allow the two registries to shift the Lands Information Management System operations online. In an advert, Lands Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri noted that digitisation aims at reducing the turn-around time for their services.

A recent audit report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission revealed that workers, who had no contractual obligation with the Government, were handling vital land records. Paperless transactions are expected to contain this and other forms of fraud.

However, other services such as transfer of land ownership, registration of land documents, and all payments through e-citizen portal will not be affected.

In May 2014, the then Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu (now Kitui governor) announced a 10-day shutdown of Nairobi and Central registries to undertake audits.