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Pressure by LSK on Ardhisasa unlocks over 100,000 properties

Pressure by LSK on Ardhisasa unlocks over 100,000 properties

The
Lands ministry has activated searches for 100,000 properties, enabling
transactions worth billions of shillings, under pressure from protests over
delays on its digital land registration system.

According
to a deal made on Tuesday with the Law Society of
Kenya (LSK)
and the Institute of Surveyors of
Kenya (ISK)
, search results for the 100,000 land assets will be available
right away, and feedback for the remaining 74,000 parcels will be given within
14 days after they have been fully authenticated.

“The
Ministry will activate the application for searches on Ardhisasa. For the
100,000 verified properties, searches will be issued immediately. For the
74,000 that are still undergoing the process of validation, applicants will get
a prompt on the reasons for the rejection within 14 days,” read a pact signed
by the Ms Karoney, LSK President Erick Theuri, and his ISK counterpart Abraham
Samoei.

The
deal came following a crisis meeting when the legal community vowed to protest
the National
Lands Management Information System
, or Ardhisasa, on Wednesday due to
transaction delays.

The
mechanism is designed to make land transactions more efficient.

Digital
information should be gathered and processed in the areas of survey, physical
planning, land administration, registration, valuation, adjudication, and
settlement.

However,
users of the platform such as bankers, lawyers, and surveyors complained about
the platform’s slow processing of property search results.

The
Kenya Bankers Association earlier this year stated the delays have placed on
hold transactions worth Sh102 billion, while the LSK Nairobi office warned last
year that multibillion-shilling land transactions had halted.

The
ministry insists that the lengthy process has been slowed down by the laborious
process of cleaning up land data and the precautions required to avoid
transferring errors from the older land records.

The
ministry also claims that most of the landowners on the verified and uploaded
properties have not yet registered uploaded and registered the properties,
which is a necessary step to enable the properties to be used for transactions.

“The
meeting acknowledged the achievements in the digitisation of land records,
conversion, and implementation of the Sectional Properties Act, 2020. This has
been a rigorous process involving data cleaning, coding, and scanning of
records,” Ms Karoney, Mr Theuri, and Mr Samoei said in a communique following
the Tuesday meeting.

A
total of 510,945 Kenyans visited the platform between April 2021 and April
2022, according to ministry data, and 46,746 people registered as users,
including professionals like advocates, surveyors, and bankers who regularly
engage with land transactions.

The
data reveals that during the past year, 86 charges, 34 transfers, 26 sales of
plans, and 54,804 payments for land rent have all been made via Ardhisasa.

Read
full story here

 

Related Articles:

1.      
Ultimate
Guide To Understanding Ardhisasa

2.      
 How
To Add Property On Your Ardhisasa Account

3.      
 How
To Conduct A Land Search Using Your Ardhisasa Account

 

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