State to prioritise Lamu on lands digitisation to fight grabbing - CS Wahome

Cabinet Secretary(CS) for Lands Alice Wahome has vowed to prioritise Lamu on matters of land digitisation to fight grabbing in the county.

Speaking when she visited and assessed conditions at the Lamu Lands Registry over the weekend, Ms Wahome said the intention of her ministry is to improve service delivery, fast-track and settle land-related issues affecting the Lamu County residents.

Noting with concern that most lands in Lamu lack ownership documents, she said only 56,000 title deeds had so far been recorded across the county with more expected to be documented, especially once digitisation has fully been embraced.

The digitisation, which started back in the year 2018, is a rigorous process which includes validation and manual verification of the records of all the departments from different state departments.

The CS said the ministry is working closely with counties in conducting the exercise.

She cited digitisation as the only effective and sure way to fight and curb land theft not only in Lamu, but across the country.

She mentioned Lamu as among the counties prioritised in the land digitisation process.

“I have had a successful candid discussion with Lamu Governor Issa Timamy on land and housing issues in the county. We will fully partner on ensuring we solve many of the land issues in this place,” Ms Wahome said.

She said she was aware a lot of land in Lamu is not titled and that her ministry was prepared to secure such lands.

“Digitisation is one of the security tools that we can apply to stop land theft. Even Lamu where it is, they will also come to digitisation. Indeed it is one of the priority counties. So far we have a total of about 56,000 titles that are already recorded. These numbers are expected to go higher after digitisation. So, I am on the case here and I want to confirm that we will not leave Lamu behind,” she said.

Lamu Governor Issa Timamy welcomed the move to digitize lands and other essential services in the county, adding that such efforts will effectively boost management of county resources.

Automation of essential services like land will also contribute to accountability of revenue collection in the county.

“I welcome land digitisation as this will enhance transparency and accountability. Digitisation of all land records at the county’s land registry will help foolproof the systems, curb corruption and land grabbing altogether. Digitisation also facilitates easy monitoring and management of such assets,” said Mr Timamy.

Recently, Ms Wahome was quoted saying it will take another five(5) years to fully conclude the digitisation of land-related records in the country.

She further noted that it would cost the government between Sh35 billion to Sh40 billion to conclude the exercise.

The government through the Ministry of Lands in consultation with key stakeholders in the real estate sector, embarked on digitisation of land records to migrate information relating to land from manual registers to a digital database.

Digitisation derives its legality from the Land Registration Act No. 3 of 2012 which mandates land registrars to maintain land registers and documents relating to land in a secure, accessible, and reliable format including electronic files.

The Land Registration (Electronic Transactions) Regulations, 2020, also outline the legal framework relating to digitisation.