Lands Ministry Reforms Too Slow, Says Report

Business Daily (Nairobi)

Rawlings Otini

17 June 2011

Most Kenyans are not satisfied with the ongoing land reforms terming it slow and inefficient, says a new report prepared by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI).

The report, which examined issues such as the ease and cost of accessing information on land, timeliness in carrying out transactions, incidents of corruption, and security of tenure shows that 53 per cent of Kenyans are not satisfied with service delivery at the Ministry of Lands offices.

The findings from 29 of the 47 counties indicates that most respondents who have dealt with Lands ministry offices are dissatisfied with the services.

“A big part of the respondents stated that they wanted the Ministry of Lands to ensure transparency, accountability, and justice in land administrations in the country,” said Mr Mwenda Makathimo, a director at the institute.

In rating the performance of key land reform institutions, the Lands ministry and Parliament received the lowest ranking while the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission emerged the most satisfactory. Officials at the ministry , however, said they had improved their service delivery by preparing necessary legislation, embarking on electronic data storage, and shortening the transaction processes. “We have embarked on a number of processes to increase efficiency, among them is a process that will cut down transaction procedures from 34 to seven,” said Ms Peris Mangi’ra, the Land Reforms Transformation Unit coordinator at the ministry.

She said the ministry was preparing bills that if passed will help fast track land reforms in the country. The ministry is preparing the Land National Commission bill 2011 to operationalise the National Land Commission, a bill that LDGI says did not have enough input from the Kenyan public due to lack of exhaustive consultation.

Procedures, the security of land tenure, and the cost of transactions are among the key factors that determine the attractiveness of a country as a key investment destination.

Only 27 per cent of people familiar with dealings of the ministry said it was performing to their expectations.

The score card on lands reforms was based on equitable access to security of land ownership, transparency, and cost effective land administration, among other factors. “We still have old issues like missing documents and manual labour instead of electronic data handling,” said Samuel Henia lawyer at the John Mburu Advocates.

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