Digitization,
Murang’a has become the second County after Nairobi to operationalize digital land records. Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome launched the National land management system in the county, a move which will see local residents access services in the local land registry through a digital platform.
Wahome lauded the system dubbed Ardhisasa promising that it will end numerous challenges and problems that have rocked the land sector for many years. She noted Ardhisasa platform will strengthen the security of land tenure in Murang’a as it has been designed to remove human interference with land ownership records.
“I want to commend members of staff in the lands ministry for the painstaking and long hours they spent on ensuring the process of digitizing records was done diligently to avoid errors,” she said. The Lands Ministry, Wahome said, has an objective to ensure that the platform becomes accessible in all parts of the country within the shortest possible time frame.
“Other counties that are next in line are Isiolo, Marsabit, and Mombasa. The prelaunch steps are almost all done for Isiolo and Marsabit,” stated the CS. She noted that with operationalization of Ardhisasa digital platform, residents will easily do transactions without being conned by brokers and cartels who have ruined the reputation of the land registries.
“I want to assure you that beginning today, the familiar problems with the land registry will be history. No one will be able to fraudulently tamper with your land ownership records,” she noted.
Wahome continued: “The Ardhisasa system is designed to alert, by telephone and email, a landowner any time there is an attempt to conduct a transaction on his or her land. A landowner will get that notification only when they are registered users of the Ardhisasa system.”
The CS encouraged all residents who own pieces of land to register and open an account on the platform saying there will be staff deployed at the registry to assist members of the public to open accounts. In the digitization process which commenced in 2021 at Murang’a land registry, 387,635 registers and 269,694 files were successfully scanned and the records transmitted to land’s data center in Nairobi.
“We are proud to announce that the processed data for various sections and locations has been uploaded onto the Ardhisasa platform, making it ready for transaction,” added the CS.
Wahome further said the ministry has incorporated a fingerprint module into the processes to accommodate individuals unable to write. “Additionally, upgrades have been made to our database schemas and the ingestion engine to align with the data structure of Murang’a County,” she remarked.
Meanwhile the CS promised to tackle land injustices which have been witnessed with some land buying companies. Citing the Kihiu Mwiri land settlement in Gatanga Sub County, Wahome said the ministry will deploy professionals to carry out surveys and validate available information to ensure concerned residents get rightful ownership of their land.
On his part, Lands Principal secretary Nixon Korir underscored reforms the government is doing to streamline land transactions in the country. He affirmed that cartels and brokers who for a long time have defrauded residents seeking services in the land registries are being expunged.
“We are working to ensure land ownership and transactions in the country are done in a transparent manner as we strive to lock out individuals who have been messing up the land sector,” added Korir. He promised to champion for establishment of a land registry in Murang’a south to serve residents of Kandara, Gatanga, Maragua, Kigumo and Ithanga sub counties.
The occasion held at the county land registry was attended by Maragua MP Mary Wamaua who observed that some schools, health centres and forests have lost part of their land to grabbers calling for those encroaching public land to be stopped.