[Source: Business Daily, by Edwin Mutai]
The business community wants the State to suspend the rollout of the Land Information Management System (LIMS) until a legal framework is prepared to back it up.
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) has petitioned the Senate to stop the Land Ministry from implementing the system pending the formulation of guidelines and regulations.
KEPSA chief executive Carole Karuga has warned that arbitrary closures at the ministry would hurt Kenya’s overall ease of doing business ranking on access to credit.
“KEPSA recognises that clearly defined legislation, high-quality land administration system and equal access to property rights is essential for enabling businesses to expand their operations and that, the absence of land ownership protections in a country, leaves investors open to land disputes or property seizures, outcomes which likely to hinder direct investment relating to land and property development projects,” she said in a petition tabled in the Senate last evening.
KEPSA said the ministry was conducting audits without involving stakeholders with expertise on LIMS matters.
The ministry started dry runs on the system, which was expected to go live from April 1, cutting land registration time to 12 days down from 73.
But the registries, which were closed for 28 days due to Covid-19 have since been partially reopened.
It currently takes developers and landowners nine processes to register property, which forces them to move from office to office. The processes include title search that takes three days, land rent clearance (19 days), clearance of land rates (five days), consent to transfer clearance (nine days) and requisition of file valuation (four days), the ministry says.
Other processes are site visits and reporting (20 days), registration of title (five days), payment of stamp duty (four days) and endorsement and assessment of the deal (four days).
Clearance of rent and rates as requisition of file valuation are the only procedures that are done online while the search of title, consent to the transfer, title registration, payment of stamp duty and assessment and endorsement of the deal are partially digitised.
Ms Karuga said despite the intervention of court following a petition by the Law Society of Kenya in April 2018, that led to the establishment of a task force to develop guidelines for the implementation of an electronic registration and conveyancing system, the report was not publicised.
She said the ministry continues to unlawfully implement the LIMS without proper statutory backing.
[Full article: Business Daily, by Edwin Mutai]
