Nick Wambugu , the co-ordinator of Government Digital Payments at the
Ministry of Land, during the interview yesterday. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA
By STELLAR MURUMBA
In Summary
Tomorrow marks the end of manual land transactions at
the Nairobi registry. Rate payments, searches and queries will be
online, the ministry has said.
This means that Nairobi residents will have to register
under the government’s online tool e-Citizen that allows easy
transacting, including paying bills, making inquiries and searches.
Land registries are known for unsightly heaps of
dog-eared papers and files that would easily discourage even the most
determined land-owner keen on getting some details.
The result has been claims of corrupt practices, mostly bribes and use of brokers, that have also been supported by studies
Advocates charge between Sh2,500 and Sh5,000 to
conduct land searches for people intimidated by the long queues at the
land offices.
A manual land search — at a standard government fee
of Sh500 — would take up to two weeks to complete but brokers do it in a
day. That is the most common form of corruption reported in a survey by
the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI) last year.
The LDGI report found that corruption continued unabated in the 56 lands registries across the country.
About 41 per cent of the respondents during the
research carried out in all the 47 counties said they had either been
asked for “fuel money” for site visits by land officials or to make
other unofficial payments.
The respondents also reported cases of files missing from registries.
But the co-ordinator of the government’s digital
payments in charge of digitising the Land ministry, Nick Wambugu, said
these woes are going to be a thing of the past. “Digital files cannot be
lost because the Internet does not forget,” said Mr Wambugu.
He told the Business Daily that paper files at the Nairobi registry have been converted into soft documents.
Twelve other large registries — Kajiado, Machakos,
Mombasa and Kilifi. Others are Kwale, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Bungoma,
Thika, Kiambu and Meru — will be digitised by March 1. Online stamp duty
payments will also be available.
“Nairobi registry is now paperless and fully online
for efficiency purposes. Why would you be queuing while you can do the
annual transaction online from the comfort of your home?” asked Mr
Wambugu.
“Converting other physical files from the remaining
43 registries to the digital platform will start after March 1 and be
completed by end of the year.”
In case one does not have a smartphone, desktop
computer, tablet or cannot access a cyber café, Mr Wambugu says Huduma
centres are a stone’s throw away.
He said that digitising government payments enhances
efficiency towards the fight against corruption. It also saves time, he
said.
“Land officers will no longer give excuses of land files
lost just to impose unofficial charges for personal gain. Cases of
missing files were rampant but now with the digitisation no one will say
a file is lost and the system will do away with middlemen.”
Registrars and clerks who have been making more
than Sh100,000 per day on searches and lost files will be forced to quit
their jobs, observers predict. Raphael Ngalatu, an advocate at VNM
Advocates, however, says the online platform will not eliminate brokers
since only the land searches and land rate payments will be digitised.
Many Kenyans are ignorant of the online processes
and most have confidence in brokers since they have a good rapport with
the government officials, he explained.
“Of course we will lose out on the manual land
searches that we used to charge Sh5,000 at most but still after that a
client would have to come to us for the legal process.
Ignorant and lazy
“Many Kenyans are ignorant and lazy to follow
processes and they will still come to us for the searches, which we will
now be forced to charge lower like about Sh1,000 or even Sh500,” he
said adding that the main source of their earnings is legal fees and the
actual transfer of title deeds.
Users of the platform have complained on social media about poor public education, claiming “this system does not work at all”.
“The ministry should have done a parallel run at least for six months as they monitor the change-over.
The way this is being implemented will result in
headache for land rent payers, same as it happened to driving licence
renewals. Why don’t these people consult?” posed the user.
However, Mr Wambugu said the ministry is running a
media campaign and will include brochures, reiterating the teething
problems will go once the information reaches all corners of the
country.
“The transition to digital payment will be a bit
stressful at the beginning in terms of usability since the Internet is a
technical tool for most land owners, but things are looking up,” he
said.
In February last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta
launched the National Titling Centre in Nairobi in a bid to automate
land registry that was expected to process three million “tamper-proof
title deeds” in the next three years.
The online service is part of the government’s
e-citizen portal, a one-stop site that allows access to services from
various agencies.
For the annual land rate payments, land owners
should register by sending “Lands” to 21504 then dial *512# to request
amount due from Ardhi House. Land search fee is Sh500 but there is an
extra Sh50 for maintaining the system, the co-ordinator said
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