The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning needs Ksh35 billion to digitise all land records in Kenya, the Cabinet Secretary responsible for the docket Alice Wahome revealed on Wednesday.
Speaking to journalists in Nairobi at a meeting with stakeholders, CS Wahome reported the ministry has already facilitated digitization of land records in Nairobi and Murang’a Counties.
The CS revealed her ministry will launch similar projects in Marsabit and Isiolo counties as the government looks to digitise land records across the whole country with the process expected to be concluded in five years’ time.
This is in a bid to contain fraudulent buying and selling of land with numerous Kenyans reporting having lost their hard earned money to fraudulent dealers who take advantage of land deals.
“Many times the cartels start by influencing a few of our officers and taking away the files. When the records of the land that you own disappear then it is easy to manipulate or come up with other records and verification therefore, becomes very hard,” she stated.
In a presser, she explained cons interfere with land records and manipulate gullible Kenyans into losing their land or losing money buying land with false information.
“Normally they target the deed files and the ordinary files. Once that happens, it is easy to interfere with your land,” she elaborated noting that rogue officers in her Ministry had been sucked into this type of crime.
The cabinet secretary noted that digitization of land information will play a crucial role in ensuring transparency in the Lands Ministry. “With digitization, (interference of land details) is going to be a thing of the past,” she observed.
“I did tell the country maybe with within the next four to five years if we are properly funded, we will be able to address the question of digitization nationally,” she noted.
CS Wahome vowed to continue digitizing land data to combat land grabbing by cartels who collude with officers in the Ministry of Lands.
This comes at a time the Ministry of Lands has onboarded 96 per cent of its services to the eCitizen platform, enhancing efficiency in service delivery. Of all the Ministry's 214 services, 206 are fully integrated, with the remaining 8 a work in progress.
For the 2024/2025 fiscal year, the Ministry of Lands intends to issue 280,000 title deeds and digitize key land registries in select counties.
