Sorting Paper: Land Digitalisation Experiences in Two Kenyan Counties

Keywords: land records, land administration, digitalisation, urbanisation, land administration officials, sorting paper
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Based on a scoping survey done in Kajiado and Murang’a Counties in Kenya, this paper describes the experiences of land administration officials with the digitalisation of land records. Specifically, it applies a digitalisation as urbanisation approach to analyse and examine the conditions that the digitalisation process operates under and discusses how the officials participate in these processes in the two counties. The two counties are in the process of initiating their land digitalisation programmes. Interviews with national and county government officials, community leaders, and land professionals indicate that in the two counties officials participated in the sorting paper phase of the digitalisation process. However, this participation was constrained by their limited resources and their non-involvement in the project design. These conditions are further complicated by local politics, a perception of corruption by the public, devolution, and maladministration. The survey suggests that in the two counties a number of key success factors are necessary to achieve successful digitalisation of land records. It is these success factors that the paper identifies.