New CS roots for speedy digitisation of land transactions

Lands and Physical Planning Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney

Lands and Physical Planning Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney has called on speedy digitisation of all land transactions to improve service delivery.

The Cabinet Secretary also said her ministry would embrace teamwork and engage stakeholders in achieving the government’s Big Four agenda, which include affordable housing.

The others pillars of President’s plan are manufacturing, healthcare and food security.

Digitisation and registration of property is one of the key areas targeted in the government’s reform agenda.

“We welcome ideas from all our stakeholders to fast-track digitisation process of all our land records,” the CS said during a consultative meeting to chart ways of simplifying land registration in Kenya.

Karoney said her ministry was working with the National Treasury to develop and implement a digital on-line service delivery system. “The government is keen on abolishing manual procedures for services that can be obtained online,” she said.

Lands principal secretary Nicholas Muraguri said the ministry has interrogated the property registration procedure and has developed strategies aimed at reducing the turn-around time.

Dr Muraguri said the ministry has already implemented the online assessment payment of stamp duty, online payment of land rent and online title search at the Nairobi registry.

Government Digital Payments coordinator Nick Wambugu told participants that digitisation is being implemented across government and the Ministry of Lands is critical in this process.

Wambugu said digitisation is being carried out to enhance all government revenue collections, improve accountability and reconciliation; and consequently improve service delivery.

Kenya was ranked position 125 down from position 129 out of 190 countries globally in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking database 2018 Report.

The Lands ministry was among organisations that were evaluated in the area of registering property in which nine procedures related to the registration of property were analysed.

The Lands ministry in collaboration with Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Ministry is working on programmes to implement strategies geared at easing doing business in the country.