Settle title deed issues with the registry, Uhuru tells land owners

President Uhuru Kenyatta during the official launch of the digitalisation of the lands registry. [PSCU]

President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked landowners who will have issues with their title deeds to sort out the issues with the Lands Ministry.

Uhuru said with the launch of the digital registry, there are many landowners who will find their titles not captured but should not panic.

Uhuru was speaking in Nairobi during the official launch of the  Lands Information Management System (LIMS).

Uhuru said following the launch, Ardhi House will no longer accept manual land documents at the Nairobi Registry as all its manual registers will be closed.

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

Others are payments of stamp duty, registration fees, consent fees, application and withdrawal of caution/caveats/restrictions, registration of land documents and searches.

“We now close the old system and begin a new journey. For 50 plus years many Kenyans have suffered due to land-related issues. Many have bought non-existing lands or those that have already been sold to other people, titles changed and handed to other people,” Uhuru said.

He added, “We may have some whose details will miss in the digital system but I ask all of them to look for the ministry to sort out pending issues”.

The head of state said the system will play a key role in reducing human interactions, delays and other inconveniences.

“It will go a long way in ending the middlemen and fraudsters, issues of missing files, perennial fraud and resolution of historical land disputes while assuring the security of land title deeds under ‘Shamba lako Haiti safi’,” Uhuru said.

He said the system has also seen the development of a digital topographical map for the entire country and that of the 47 counties.

Through the system, Uhuru said all Public land has been separated from Private land, indexed, documented and safeguarded for public use.

“All landowners will get accurate information wired for commercialisation of property in transparency, efficient and accountable manner. It will aid in dispute resolution of land cases and reduce the backlog of cases in our courts,” he said.

The lands ministry now joins other state departments that have fully digitalised their operations.

They include the office of the Attorney General, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Kenya Revenue Authority, National Safety and Transport Authority, Devolution, ICT, Education and Interior.

“There is still more work to be done to land reforms. We roll out a fully digitised registry in Nairobi and the process will be rolled out in a phased and gradual manner in 20 counties that will be onboarded by end of the year,” Uhuru said.

He said the system will be rolled out to the rest of the country by 2022.

“The system will be linked to Hduma Namba system and county governments revenue systems. It will help in providing the Judicial processes, EACC, DCI and ODPP with accurate and easily examinable data in land fraud,” he said.

Uhuru said the cleanup in the land registry will continue until all government land is secured from land grabbing.