- The conversion will enhance security of land records, speed up transactions, and minimise fraud and corruption that have pervaded lands offices.
- There will also be decentralisation of registers and files to counties, to speed up transactions.
Image: ENOS TECHE
The National Treasury has allocated Sh769 million for digitisation of land registries in the 2022-23 financial year.
The allocation is a major boost to ongoing land reforms.
Treasury CS Ukur Yatani also allocated Sh1.1 billion for processing and registration of title deeds and Sh130 million for development of land registries.
“To strengthen land and property ownership, the government has issued more than 5.3 million title deeds over the last eight years,” the CS said on Thursday.
Yatani said the government has also fully digitised land records in Nairobi under the National Land Information Management System (ArdhiSasa) programme.
This he says, will improve accessibility of records and lower the cost of land transactions.
The new system is part of the reforms in the lands sector that has been riddled with corruption.
It requires migrating all parcels to one regime, the Registry Index Maps.
Rims will replace deed plans as registration instruments for land. The deed plans have been prone to manipulation.
The conversion will enhance security of land records, speed up transactions and minimise fraud and corruption at lands offices.
There will also be decentralisation of registers and files to counties, to speed up transactions.
The ministry started the digitisation process in January 2021 with Nairobi and aims to digitise the country by December 2022.
Yatani said the government recognises the great opportunities that digital technologies offer in various sectors of the economy.
"Efficiently deployed, digital technologies have strong potential to accelerate economic recovery and improve livelihoods. This is at relatively low cost for sustainable and inclusive development,” he said.
For this reason, he allocated Sh15.6 billion to fund initiatives in the ICT sector.
The allocation includes Sh620 million for government shared services.
Treasury projects the total revenue collection including appropriation-in-aid and grants for the FY 2022-23 budget to be Sh2.4 trillion, equivalent to 17.5 per cent of GDP.
Of this, ordinary revenue is projected at Sh2.14 trillion, equivalent to 15.3 per cent of GDP.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)