Does It Take 48 Hours To Do A Land Transaction On Ardhisasa? Citizen Reporter

By Citizen Reporter For Citizen Digital

President Uhuru Kenyatta made his final Madaraka Day speech on Wednesday and took the opportunity to highlight his achievements during his nine years in office.

One of the successes he highlighted was dealing with corruption in the Lands sector.

He said, "In the past, all land matters were handled using a manual registry. And this made the Ministry of Lands a den of corruption.  In fact, part of the Wilson Airport runway, to my left, had a Tittle Deed registered in the name of a private entity."

President Kenyatta listed the launch of the Ardhisasa platform as one of the successes of his era.

Ardhisasa, which was launched in April last year, is an online platform that allows citizens to interact with land information held and processes undertaken by Government. It was developed jointly by the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning (MoLPP) and the National Land Commission (NLC) and key partners in government. 

In Nairobi, all land-related transactions were moved online, stopping physical transactions.

President Kenyatta said that as part of reforms in the Land Registry, the process of stumping out fake Tittle Deeds and reversing fraud has been accelerated. 

"If it took a minimum of six months to do a single land transaction, this has now been reduced to 48 hours using a system called Ardhisasa. Similarly, instead of taking between one and three months to do a land search, this system will give you land search results in 3 to 5 minutes," he said.

However, is this the case?  Does it now take 48 hours to do a land transaction?

According to Law Society of Kenya President, Eric Theuri, it takes an average of a month to conduct a search and more than three months to conduct a transaction. 

He said the experience that advocates have had with the Ardhisasa system has been "chaotic, extremely inefficient, frustrating and confusing". 

Not all services are available on the platform, yet it is supposed to be a one-stop shop for the different departments in the ministry, Theuri said.

"It is not linked to other relevant government systems like NLC and County Governments, hence one does not know where to start or end where information is supposed to be shared between the agencies," Theuri said.

"It takes months to have a property verified and there are no timelines on the turnaround time.  On average it will take you more time to transact than it used to."

Theuri said that with most of the properties in Nairobi being held under sublease, the process of conversion and geo referencing of the properties is not complete.

"Hence anyone holding such a title is unable to transact. While they hold valid titles, they cannot transact. We are unable to advice clients on what to expect as the system is unpredictable and unknown."

 According to Nation, less than 10 per cent of the 40,000 properties in Nairobi which are ready to be uploaded live on the system have moved there.