GIS Guidelines for counties

Kenya was late in seizing the use of GIS technology for development. However, it’s been catching up, even if rather slowly. That’s why I was excited to see the Council of Governors, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU), recently launched some guidelines that will govern the implementation of GIS-driven platforms in Counties. GIS-driven platforms, which enable the easy manipulation, presentation and dissemination of spatial data, are powerful tools for efficient land governance and decision-making. The guidelines are expected to enhance the uptake of this technology by County governments.

The road to the development of the guidelines has been long, and called for niche expertise, and substantial funding. Luckily, Council of Governors had good partners in FAO and EU, besides other local technical partners. Let us therefore celebrate this achievement, and, in addition, use the guidelines to trigger the establishment of GIS-based information systems across the country. The guidelines, with a foreword by Governor Ahmed Abdullahi, the current Chairman of the Council of Governors, underscore the need to seize the use of GIS tools, and include a checklist of the pertinent requirements and steps to be taken in establishing such systems.

GIS powerful planning tools

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) pack intelligence that enables the use of digital information of the spatial or geographic locations of objects within a defined jurisdiction of interest for diverse purposes. Because they are based on a common survey reference framework, the spatial positions of objects within the jurisdiction can be established, classified and accordingly uploaded on the platform. For instance, information on entities such as land parcels, access roads, health and education facilities may be uploaded on different layers. Consequently, different users are able to prompt and access information from layers of interest to them.

A prospective agri-business investor may be interested on the layer containing land parcels, while an education officer may only be keen on the locations of schools. Land administration managers may use the system to manage the collection of land rent and rates, and to close titling gaps. The governor and local politicians may be keen on all, in order appreciate the spread of access roads, health and education facilities in the County. This can be stretched to include crop yield data from satellite imagery to predict food harvests. This may inform the distribution of food relief to deficit zones.

Prioritise

Some counties may already have established GIS-driven platforms; others may be at it. But most haven’t started. There’s a glim future for counties that remain beholden to analogue data and systems. Managing disparate spatial data sets in analogue format is difficult and punishing. It slows down planning and decision-making for development. Technical officers, particularly experts in surveying, planning, valuation and land administration, must acquire the language to communicate this to the executive and the County Assembly. With buy-in and political goodwill at this level, funding for the systems may be prioritized.

Dated: 21st November, 2024