That the cabinet meeting held on the last Sunday of April 2014 decided to vote in funds for the digitization of Kenya’s land records is good news. I’ve argued severally that Kenya has cut itself a niche for innovations in ICT and enjoys good national coverage of mobile telephony in Africa! It’s therefore ironical for landowners and businesspeople to queue for hours in land registries to buy official property searches, information they could access on phone or computer through e-transactions from wherever they are. I remember that as late as 2008, we decried this as a colleague from Sweden casually logged into their database and made queries on the size, use and ownership of a parcel in Stockholm, Sweden. And he got his results as we shared tea in some Nairobi hotel. This is good for business.

A team of consultants, in conjunction with technical officers from the Lands Ministry, subsequently went on to develop a road map for the implementation of a national land information management system. The development of the system calls for the conversion of the existing manual records into digital form, the use of digital technology in the future capture and input of new records and the establishment of a institutional governance system to oversee the processes. Years later, the Lands Ministry has walked only a small part of this digitization road. That’s why the cabinet endorsement excites.

Implementation isn’t easy though. Kenya boosts millions of manual land records and a prevalence of manual processes in its land administration. One can therefore understand that the majority of senior technical officers in the Lands Ministry must have been weaned on manual processes and records and must therefore find new technology-driven processes a challenge. There are chaps officers who have exploited the slow and inefficient manual systems for self-gain. Such officers erect deliberate barriers to computerization. The cost of appropriate technical solutions, both hardware and software, is considerable. Arguing a case for sufficient funds therefore calls for goodwill from Treasury and Parliament. Moreover, soliciting bilateral or multilateral partner funds to support some of the specialized components of a land information system calls for political goodwill and blessings. For these reasons, the full transformation to digital technology in the management of our land records calls for strong commitment and leadership from the highest State level. This is why the commitment by our cabinet could mark the turning point in the implementation of the above road map.

Kenya is not alone in confronting the pertinent challenges. Many third world countries, and certainly most in Africa, are still toying with the challenge of digitizing land records. Goodwill, funds and institutional mindsets remain limiting. Yet without a digital database and environment, it remains difficult for political and policy managers to easily access national and regional records for essential decisions on matters of ownership, land use and taxation which are essential for economic planning. The absence of such a base also denies landowners and businesspeople the opportunity to expedite land transactions. The case for computerizing land records is therefore compelling for Africa. This is why the cabinet, through the Lands Ministry, will need to be seen to walk its talk on the matter.

One hopes that the Lands Ministry and the Land Commission will see the great opportunity the decision portends for Kenya and work together to deliver expeditiously. With good leadership, this is something they can do, differences of opinion on mandate notwithstanding. Kenyans care less who delivers the initiative provided the delivery is prompt and successful.

One concern though. The recent devolution of mandates like surveying, mapping and planning has got seen some County governments prioritising the digitization of land records. This is good since it demonstrates the sense of urgency they attach to this matter. But computerized land records must serve intra- and extra-county needs. Even if Counties were to toy with the initiative, it must be remembered that the records must be accessed by other counties and Kenya citizens and registered companies wherever they may be. This requires that computerization ensures minimum standardization for reasons of accuracy, quality and access protocols. Issues of copyright and security of both the data and the country will need pre-thinking and agreement. Think about the prospect of some hacker easily accessing the database of land records and altering the ownership profile of a parcel. This would be a management nightmare. Some land information also has direct implications to national and county security and needs to be centrally controlled. A successful system will therefore need to be coordinated from national level for the easy management of policy, legal, quality, security and access implications.