Digitisation, new taxes: Hits and misses in the Ministry of Lands

The slow pace of the land digitisation exercise amid a development-hungry government that is eager to churn out 200,000 housing units annually is one of the areas that might have tainted the performance of former Lands Cabinet secretaries Zachary Njeru and Alice Wahome.

Ms Wahome and Mr Njeru have been the two CSs at the helm of the Land, Housing, Public Works, and Urban Development ministry at different times until their dismissal on Thursday.

Njeru handed over the ministry in October 2023.

Land records digitisation and the affordable housing programme are the two core projects under the ministry at the heart of public interest.

These two go hand in glove and the slow pace of streamlining registration of land and title processing has been singled out by both private sector and State agencies as a setback in the development of housing.

When he took office, Njeru made the rhetorical pronouncements that he would expedite the land digitisation exercise to safeguard the integrity of land documents.

“It is very hard to interfere with technology. The manual records have been problematic because the files are physical so it is very easy for someone to hide,” he said.

The former CS came into office when the Nairobi City County land registry was already digitised while Murang’a was in the process.

He promised to unveil registries for the rest of the major towns and cities by the end of 2024.

He was banking on his experience as a sub-county administrator in Nakuru County where he undertook a slum upgrading project successfully.

“Once we are through with those two counties (Murang’a and Nairobi) we are going to roll out in other major cities starting with Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Eldoret. We hope within the next financial year we will be through with all land digitisation,” he said.

Murang’a County digital land registry, under Ardhi Sasa platform, was unveiled by Wahome just days before the axe fell on the CSs.  

“Murang’a County becomes second after Nairobi where the National Lands Management Information Systems(NLMIS) is fully operational,” said Wahome, even as she joked of CSs being sacked, perhaps with a premonition that she might be among those set to be let go.

She described the launch as a milestone.

“The launch of Ardhi Sasa will strengthen the security of land tenure here in Murang’a and the rest of the country as it has been designed to remove human interference with land records,” she said.

Other counties in line were Isiolo, Marsabit and Mombasa.

Njeru’s one-year stint at the Ministry of Lands was largely uneventful as he rarely involved himself in ribbon cutting type of events associated with political leaders.

His predecessor, however, as a seasoned politician, was not shy to be seen in the open putting cartels in the sector on notice while doing the usual launching and unveiling.

Her move to gazette fee increases in land transactions for services offered by the Ministry was criticised by players in the sector who argued it would not only increase the cost of land but also housing units.

The Land Law (Amendment Bill) 2023 which was later withdrawn also put Wahome on the spot because it sought to compel owners of freehold land within the peripheries of cities and urban centres to pay an annual levy.

“What we were looking for was a levy for land within cities or urban centres. Our land outside urban centres were not to be affected,” Wahome said while defending the Bill.