You can now transfer or even register your property in less than 12 days, down from 73 days, if you live in Nairobi.
The time-saving and convenience is due to reforms put in place by the Ministry of Lands, CS Farida Karoney said.
Speaking yesterday at Sarova Panafric hotel, Nairobi, during the ease of doing business stakeholders' forum, Karoney said the situation in the ministry is looking up.
"We aspire to transact our business in 24 hours," she told the audience that included banking institutions, lawyers, KRA, valuers and others.
Karoney said her ministry with seven departments is keen to move along with its clients.
Land CAS Gideon Mungar'o and Land PS Nicholas Muraguri were present.
Karoney said her ministry will do its best to improve services, to surpass best-performing countries in the world
New Zealand early this year ranked at the top by the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings for registering property.
Karoney said by next year, Kenya ought to have topped New Zealand.
New Zealand is the world's best in the procedures, time and costs it takes to transfer property, and the quality of the land administration system.
The World Bank looked at five aspects for this rating: infrastructure reliability, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land dispute resolution and equal access to property rights.
Landonline holds all of New Zealand’s land title and survey information and is critical infrastructure for New Zealand.
It underpins all property transactions in New Zealand and holds more than two million titles — there’s no other way to buy or sell property and land in the country.
Yesterday, it was revealed that in Kenya title search alone used to take three days while land rates clearance took 19 days.
A further five days would also be needed for another land rates clearance, while consent to transfer took another nine days.
Paying stamp duty took another four days while endorsement and assessments took another four days.
Site visit and reporting took a further 20 days while file valuation and requisition took another four days.
Title registration took another five days.
In total, 73 days.
Land transactions are transacted through a government portal.
One can track the transaction through a text message sent to their mobile phone.
The time has been reduced to 12 days by tapping online services, with cartels and brokers being major casualties.
For instance, land clearance certificate can now be obtained in three days while consent to transfer takes two days.
Karoney said several ministries have since been involved to ensure the progress is successful.
She said a joint mapping team composed of her ministry, Interior, Defence and Environment had been put in place to ensure the process succeeds.
"Success is being recorded," she said.
Karoney said the fact that many young people are tech- savvy will propel the venture to succeed.
She said smartphones number 11 to 12 million.
Karoney said the transformation in her ministry is critical as it will improve the ease of doing business.
Karoney said her ministry has seven safes of documents that have not been collected by owners.
She warned that her ministry may consider taking them to national archives if owners don't collect them as early as possible.
The CS said over 300 clerks have already been deployed to the public service as automation takes over.
Karoney said the system which is currently in Nairobi is set to be rolled out to other counties.
During the meeting, lawyer Charles Kanjama inquired if there was a provision in the new system for lawyers to interrogate all documents in the equivalent of perusal of a file.
