Strategies to modernize the land registration system in Kenya

The land registration system in Kenya was established in 1897 to support land registration for white settlers who had come into the country during the 19th Century. In the last one hundred years that the system has been in existence it has remained relatively the same; registry records are kept in paper format and the majority of operations are carried out on manual basis. This lack of a modern registration system has contributed to problems in land administration in the country.

The Government has expressed the need to modernize the land registration system in order to facilitate better land administration, support the development of an integrated land information management system, and a national spatial data infrastructure. However, one persistent denominator to these efforts has been the lack of strategies for such modernization.

This study, therefore, sets out to contribute to the solution of this problem through the following objectives: evaluation of the current land registration system in Kenya, identification and analysis of its strengths and weaknesses, development of strategies for the modernization of the system in Kenya, and development of a concept for a modern land registration system.

The methods adopted in carrying out the study include administration of questionnaires to selected stakeholders, personal interviews, and review of existing literature on land registration locally and internationally. These stakeholders include: private and public sector land professionals, lawyers, valuers, members of public, and general users of land registry information.

The expected outputs from the research are: a presentation of the administrative structure of the system and its operations and processes, a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the system, proposed modernization strategies, and a proposed concept and a roadmap for the development of a modern land registration model.