Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney told Parliament last week that her ministry has constituted parallel teams to assess the documents and advise the government on double registration of titles.
President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the National Lands Information Management System (NLIMS) and rolled out the digitisation on April 27, 2021, to ease property registration and introduce transparency in land administration and management.
The system went live in Nairobi in April but Ms Karoney told senators that the system is not live on both registries- the Nairobi Registry and the Central Registry.
Double title deeds registration has slowed down the digitisation process with the Land ministry now setting June as the completion date.
Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney told Parliament last week that her ministry has constituted parallel teams to assess the documents and advise the government on double registration of titles.
“When there is double registration, it takes a lot of time to digitise records because there are too many documents involved. The problem has dragged us but we have found a way to go about it,” Ms Karoney told the Senate Committee on Devolution.
President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the National Lands Information Management System (NLIMS) and rolled out the digitisation on April 27, 2021, to ease property registration and introduce transparency in land administration and management.
The system went live in Nairobi in April but Ms Karoney told senators that the system is not live on both registries- the Nairobi Registry and the Central Registry.
She said the digitisation of records in Nairobi will be completed in June, and the entire country by the end of 2024.
“My ministry is working closely with Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) to complete the exercise in Nairobi before the next financial year.
“Full digitisation of land records will go a long way in eliminating land grabbing. We started the process to fight land grabbing, a vice we have had for 60 years,” Ms Karoney said.
She said land grabbing is a problem that cannot be eliminated in five years, arguing other countries like the United Kingdom took 15 years to deal with the problem despite being advanced economies.
The Senate committee is investigating allegations NMS is directly involved in land grabbing by aiding illegal evictions.
Ms Karoney appeared before the committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kagwang to shed light on the alleged evictions of occupants of Nairobi City County staff housing units in Pumwani and Eastleigh Estates.
NMS carried out the evictions last year from the property belonging to Pumwani Staff quarters and Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC).
The eviction allowed private developers to take over ownership of the property who in June 2021 started building rental units on the disputed parcel.
Ms Karoney and the NMS management failed to provide documents to confirm ownership of the disputed properties.
“I direct you to table document on the ownership of the parcels of land on Thursday next week (this week),” Aaron Cheruiyot, who chaired Friday's session said.
Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen demanded a special audit of the NMS to ascertain its operations since 2020 when it took up management of the city-county through the transfer of key functions including land management to the national government.
