Nakuru: Nakuru County Government, together with the Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSD Kenya), is setting up a new digitized system of land transactions to curb rising cases of fraud. Chief Officer for Housing and Urban Development, Engineer Kimani Kuria, said the Land Information Management System (LIMS) is less vulnerable to corruption and human interference as it enables file tracking, adding that once activated, all land deals across the devolved unit will be conducted on an online platform from anywhere via an official website portal.
According to Kenya News Agency, Mr. Kuria indicated that the LIMS system was designed to support Nakuru’s ambition of becoming a well-planned center, promote sustainable development, and upgrade living standards for residents of the county. He added that they had consulted and worked with all stakeholders, including Planners, Surveyors, ICT experts, and Digireg-Kenya consultants, and deliberated on a clear scope to ensure the system will be tailored to fit Nakuru’s unique urban land management needs.
Engineer Kuria further explained that LIMS was an integrated and comprehensive system designed to efficiently manage and provide information on urban land use by combining both spatial and non-spatial land data that aims at bridging the gap between the County’s growing population and the demand for efficient land use and planning. The system, he clarified, will centralize land information, offering a detailed database that will track land ownership, land use, and land zoning, a move he added will be pivotal in informed decision-making on infrastructure, housing, and public services.
He assured residents that LIMS was being crafted to be a reliable data source that will aid in urban planning and resource allocation with an aim of revitalizing some of the dilapidated urban centres across the 11 sub-counties. The Chief Officer said LIMS will allow resident users to search for land ownership records, verify titles, and transfer ownership in addition to enabling them to pay land rates, upload receipts, download rent clearance certificates, and register charges on property.
‘LIMS will save citizens’ time and taxpayers’ money in terms of salaries paid to officers and purchasing of paper-based cumbersome equipment such as parcel files used to store documents in the registry,’ stated Kuria. The Chief Officer further said that with digitization, one officer could initiate a transaction and follow it through to the end in the system.
Engineer Kuria observed that Kenya Vision 2030 recognizes proper land administration and management as a springboard for development, with the vision outlining the establishment of LIMS as one of the remedies for land administration and management. A Land Information Management System (LIMS) is a system that manages land-related data and processes. It’s used by government agencies, land management organizations, and urban planners to make decisions about land use and development. LIMS combines spatial data (geographic information) with non-spatial information (attribute data) to create a database.
The system is said to use a uniform spatial referencing system to link data within the system with other land-related data and is said to include procedures for collecting, updating, processing, and distributing data.
