President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta launched the
National Land Information Management System (NLIMS) commonly called Ardhisasa to
digitize all the land records in the country and establish the land management
system. The exercise began in
earnest in 2013 and is aimed at bringing efficiency
and transparency in the sector of land in Kenya. Digitization is a blessing
because it is faster and more flexible, convenient, saves money wasted on
managing the paper records.
The digitization initiative is to improve
service delivery and enhance ease of doing business by addressing various
challenges in the land sector. This include inconsistency on land records and
ownership documents, increased land disputes due to the opaque nature of
keeping land records, increased cases of fraud, forgery and corruption, lengthy
and indeterminate transactions turnaround time among other challenges.
The digitization is meant to facilitate the
following applications online;
1. Searches
(search land ownership records);
2. Land
Rent (payment of rent, uploading of receipts and downloading rent clearance
certificates);
3. Transfer
of ownership of property;
4. Assessment
of stamp duty;
5. Creation
of Securities against property;
6. Land
Rates (query and pay land rates);
7. Obtaining
consents to Transfer, Charge and Lease;
8. Mass
Titling program verification (authentication of owners).
9. Cautions
and withdrawal of caution (application for the registration or withdrawal of a
caution).
How to Register on Ardhisasa.
To access the services offered on the
Platform, one must hold an account with Ardhisasa. The system provides for the
registration of three types of accounts;
1. Individual
Registration: To register an individual account, one is required to submit
the following in the Platform;
a. National
Identification Card Serial Number and the ID Number,
b. Current
email address,
c. Passport-sized
photo (with white background), and
d. Current
personal phone number.
2. Professional
User Registration:
The individual user account provides a
separate interface that enables professionals such as Advocates,
Registered Physical Planners, and Registered Quantity Surveyors to upgrade
their account to a professional user account. To register a professional user
account, one must;
a) be
registered as an individual user,
b) be a
member of good standing to the relevant professional body that governs his/her
profession and;
c) have
copies of the requisite documentation.
The professional account enables
professionals to initiate specialized services on behalf of their clients.
3. Company
Registration:
Companies are required to register company
accounts. To register a Company account, one should have the following;
a. Company's
Company registration number,
b. Current
official company mobile number (registered using one of the director's ID
number),
c. Current
company email address, and
d. Passport-sized
photo(s) of the directors (with white background).
Land digitization provides long-term
preservation of records of paper records and it allows sharing knowledge within
and across the land. The transition from the first registration regime to the
current one and finally to the digitization of records has led to increased
efficiency in conducting business and improved accountability mechanisms. More
is still being done to ensure the digitization process is a success.
Challenges that implementation of Ardhisasa may face.
Torn and missing records.
Due to the quality of the records, in most
cases, the records are misplaced or destroyed. With this, it may be difficult to
retrieve and update the same in the system. Moreover, some records are too old.
The peppers are tattered not legible or missing posing difficulties in the
entire digitization process. Owners are then forced to apply for the
reconstruction of their files which is time-consuming.
Hostile working environment.
The process of digitization may be challenged if the people at the registries
are not supportive. This lack of support may stem from the fear that if the digitization process succeeds, they will lose
their jobs. Change management
needs to be handled well.
Duplicity.
In the initial period, land
owners may have to work manually and
in the system. This is tiring and takes a lot of time and is even costly. The
payments of rents and rates are as well required to be done through checking
the online system for the figures then manual payments.
Merits of Digitization.
Saves Money
Managing physical documents are costly and
this makes one spends a lot of recourses or recurring records management versus
the one times cost of digitization that could reduce overhead in the coming
days.
Employers spend a lot of time locating
records, sorting and exporting images or texts. That compared to what an
employee earns per hour will helps
lay bare the true cost of maintaining physical
records.
Increase efficiency
Dealing with physical documents slows down
the turnaround time. By choosing digital solutions the retrieval process at the registry will be
faster.
Currently, we can rejoice that the process is
underway. It
is advisable for proprietors, to take the initiative of registering to
the Platform and confirming their records.
