Online land system will be perfect with time; let’s be patient

The ardhisasa online system developed to ease land transactions has been with us for just over two months. Within the period, the Nairobi Chapter of the Law Society of Kenya has raised a raft of concerns.

These include delays in processing requests for account upgrades for its members and lack of clarity in processing transactions to Nairobi properties that are offline.

Valuers and real estate management agents continue to protest their omission in the ranks of land professionals taken onboard the system.

I have come across complaints by some planners protesting that the system never works whenever they seek to process development approvals. And some licensed surveyor described the system as “dead”, quite clearly an over-reaction. My own application to upgrade my account to a “licensed surveyor” is outstanding.

I anticipated this stage. A stage in which a torrent of complaints would come. These cutting through user frustrations in accessing the system, unfamiliarity with the system, challenges with formats of data fed into the system and even sheer technical limitations.

I anticipated that there’d be complaints if there weren’t options for the processing of transactions for land parcels not yet online. And that there’d be user resistance, within and without the ministry, mainly tied to conservative mindsets developed over long periods using hard copies, interacting with officers and moving physical documents from desk-to-desk. We are right there. And I empathise with Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney, on whom the buck stops.

Karoney has certainly done a great job driving a difficult and very technical ministry. Initially, she tried hard to work away from the public glare, a strategy that served her and ministry well then.

It perhaps gave her time and environment to familiarise with the ministry, and prioritise initiatives. But the heavy demands of ardhisasa smoked her out into the public arena. And she, and her top policy and technical team, had rather be prepared to remain in public space for a while.

Karoney has done a commendable job in taking the message on ardhisasa to stakeholders. This through face-to-face and virtual sensitisation and training forums, radio and TV discussions, and newspaper notices and announcements. She has also optimised the use of the ministry’s website and social media to disseminate key messages. This has been helpful.

But it behoves the technical team to buttress the sensitisation by elaborately sieving and attending to incoming user concerns.

By taking action on the legitimate ones, such as expediting account upgrades and inclusion of all land professionals.

Dissemination of easy-to-read user guides for the public and land professionals would also help. In the meantime, users and land professionals will need to appreciate that the online system is a tough technical undertaking.

It can only be perfected with time, and a lot of patience. And this is not exclusive to Kenya.