Uhuru Launches New Lands System to Protect Kenyans from Cartels

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday the Head of State launched the National Land Information Management System (NLIMS) a digital land resource management platform designed to enhance the security of land records, speed up land transactions, and hinder fraud.

The system dubbed Ardhi Sasa was commission by President Kenyatta and developed by young Kenyans over a three-year period.

"We have built and deployed a world-class system at a fraction of the cost previously used to finance failed attempts at digitization. The digital platform will secure innocent Kenyans from exploitation by cartels, middlemen, and fraudsters," President Kenyatta said.

“It is a system that will ensure, for example, a young worker who has saved his money to buy a plot, is not confronted with warnings signs such as ‘plot not for sale’ and then he gets to find out the property, actually belongs to someone else," he added when explaining how the system will help young people looking to invest.

Uhuru further noted that solving the country's land issue, which has been part of the nation's struggles, will ensure Kenya develops more and achieves Vision 2030.

“The digitalisation of land records and titles is part of my government’s broad policy of ensuring seamless synergy and cohesion between sectors that are crucial to the overall economic development of our country as envisaged in Vision 2030,” the Head of State said.

"At the click of a button, users will now be able to search and carry out various land transactions, drastically reducing human interactions, delays and other inconveniences previously experienced at land registries."

Lands Cabinet Secretary Farida Karoney had earlier raised similar issues and challenges that have marred the Lands conversation in Kenya and noted that Ardhi Sasa will be able to cut these challenges that Kenyans have raised over the years.

"For decades the land sector has been plagued by corruption, fraud and illegal land transactions, thereby making the acquisition of title deeds, a daunting and dreadful undertaking for Kenyans and investors," the CS said.

"The platform will provide a single source of truth for all land information across the Country besides revolutionizing the way Kenyans carry out land transactions," she continued.

ArdhiSasa platform will allow the lodging, processing and tracking of transactions on land in response to the need for digitization of manual records. The first phase launched will target Nairobi which covers up to 240,000 parcels and also sectional properties.