Since Independence, land has been an emotive
matter, owing to historical injustices, fraud and the manipulation of land
documents at Ardhi House. The new Ardhisasa system is part of the reforms in
the lands sector that has been riddled with corruption. It requires migrating
all parcels to one regime, the Registry Index Maps (Rims)
This realization that land sector should go
digital started in 2013 to give effect to Sections 9 and 10 of the Land
Registration Act 2012. Section 9 gives the Registrar of Lands the mandate to
maintain the register and any document required in a secure, accessible and
reliable format which includes amongst other ways, electronic files. Section 10
on the other hand, places emphasis on the accessibility of the register by
members of the public by electronic means amongst others.
Quick read: Ultimate
guide to understanding Ardhisasa
This process of digitization of the land
registry was initiated by then Cabinet secretary for land and physical planning
Hon. Charity Ngilu, in 2013. The exercise aimed to bring efficiency and
transparency in the land sector in Kenya. This marked the commencement of
digitization of 57 land registries which had been keeping manual records since
1895.
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Land Search in Kenya through Ardhisasa
Ardhisasa digital platform is a system made
solely in Kenya by Kenyans. It was developed by an elite team of Kenyan
software engineering practitioners and students. Ardhisasa has been built by a
team of young Kenyans and is therefore 100% copyrighted to the Government of
Kenya. This means that, should there be need to adjust the system to
incorporate certain agreeable proposals by stakeholders, we can easily do so,
at zero costâ Said CS for land and physical planning, Farida Karoney.
Ardhisasa project also saw the production of
Kenya's first digital topographical map and those of the nation's 47 counties,
as well as a cadastral map for Nairobi City County. The cadastral map enables
the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning to start the process of migration
to a unitary regime for land registration in order to curb fraud and cut
transaction time.
Join the Discussion: How
Ardhisasa will help Kenyan Government achieve big four agenda
Therefore, below are some of the stages of
files movement into the Ardhisasa platform
1. RECEPTION.
This is the stage where files are received
from the ministry. Land files are a generic term which is used to refer to a
number of records. These include Records of Rights (RoRs), register of the
lands, tenancy, mutation register, disputed case register, and so on. It is
good to note that all files are being stored by the ministry. So the process of
digitization begins from where the files are being released by the ministry
after noting down all the details for those particular files.
1. a. Barcoding.
After confirmation of files, the files are
being barcoded. The digitization aim is to remove errors in the files and
missing files therefore a more reliable system in collecting data was needed
and thus is the barcode. A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data
in a visual, machine-readable form. The main reason why bar code is used here
is to quickly identify these files; barcodes also eliminate the possibility of
human error the main aim of the whole process.
The occurrence of errors for manually entered
data is the main reason we have missing files at Ardhi house which bred to
corruption. A barcode scan is fast and reliable, and takes infinitely less time
than entering data by hand. Barcodes are generated using software. The software
will automatically generate a machine-readable barcode.
Ones the barcoding has been done, the next
step is first approval. First approval is entering the files into the system.
This is being done using the scanner which can read the barcodes. Here again it
is very easy to confirm if all folios were barcoded.
1. b. Using the ODOO
The word Odoo is the acronym of On-Demand
Open Object. Odoo is a large collection of business-related applications and
modules like CRM. Odoo is basically a system normally being used in business enterprises
for integrated functions. Therefore, here, using odoo, the physical file is
used against what is in the system to confirm if all details are captured in
the system.
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2. ASSEMBLY AND
DISASSEMBLY/SCANNING.
Ones files have been confirmed by the Odoo,
the files are dismantle thus called disassembly. Dissembling of files is
basically to put them in a good way which they can be checked, numbered, and
scanned. The files are therefore taken into the scanning process.
After the scanning, the files are being given
folios to make it easy to locate and trace the document. Folio is a sheet or
document representing that one particular document. For example a file
containing leases, title deeds, green card, and stamp duty will have four
folios despite of these documents having multiple pages. (Title deed is
recorded as one folio though it may have more pages). Folios are used to make
it easy to identify these documents inside the files.
Then ones this has been done, the files is
being assembled back, putting the documents together and arranging them in
numbers or folios. With is it is very easy to look for a particular document in
the files after putting folios together.
3. PRE-VALIDATION.
This process involves entering of documents
into a questionnaire form that will be used by the data entry team. There is a
checklist generated that guides this process. Some of the things in this
checklist includes but not limited to; year of leases, whether files has got a
green card or white card, the parcel number, the history of transfer, the land
owner, whether the land has got the title deeds.
4. DATA ENTRY
The digitization initiative was meant to
improve service delivery by dealing with documents disappearance, failed file
tracking system, tattered records in the land registries, poor Ministry image
and long timelines of service delivery among other challenges. Therefore, this
is the core of this entire process, people working here are people who are good
in accuracy and can type very fast. Data entry requires quick typing
speeds in order to input the necessary data into the software or database in a timely
manner.
This is done using physical files. From the
checklist generated in the pre-validation stage, data entry is using physical
files to key in the details of the file into the system. For instance using
lease, you can be asked what is available in that lease, year of lease among
other details and this applies to every document of the files.
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5. VALIDATION.
This is simply counter checking if all folios
and file details are captured properly into the system. This is done using the
physical files too. This is about checking the land records with the
registration office and doing a thorough search of registered documents for
that land parcel in all the registry offices. It also involves conducting
verification exercise to establish the validity of records held to support
ownership.
The following are some of the documents
checked during validation process
v Copies of the Title deeds
v Certified copies of grant issued
by court for succession matter
v Copy of transfer documents, sale
agreements.
v Share certificate and receipt
for payment
v Copy of National ID and KRA Pin
for Individuals
v Copies of certificate
registration, certified CR12 copies and KRA Pin for Companies/Institutions
6. DATA
CLEANING.
The great challenge in this final stage is
the quality the data keyed in. A file can have all details required but its
ownership is questionable, or it can be a public land registered as a private
land. Therefore the data being uploaded in this system must meet three
criteria: The integrity test, the completeness test and the accuracy test. If
any data doesn't meet these three elements that file will not be uploaded and
the owner of that particular land will have to physically go to registry for
verification. Double registration and double allocation will also be eliminated
during this cleaning process. The ministry is working with landowners and
different professionals to clean that up. Once data cleaning is done the files
is made accessible into the system for use.
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Conclusion
The process of digitization has come a long
way. Despite of its usefulness and efficiency, its creation has faced various
challenges including lack of political will, fighting within the ministry,
rebellion by land cartels, torn and missing land records; issue of capacity
building; poor working environment; poor staff attitude; lack of integration by
the department; use of outdated procedures and practices among others
Digitization will allow sharing of knowledge
within and across the lands. This is the main reason why we premier, we are
bringing for you full coverage about Ardhisasa and land sector in general.
There is more information which is still needed by the public. Here we have
professionals who will help you with all the land related services.
