In a move aimed at improving efficiency at the Lands Ministry, land search and land rent payments have been moved online. This is in a bid to cut off brokers who have been fleecing members of the public in the guise of aiding them do the land search at the various lands offices.
Many Kenyans can testify of missing files from the lands registry whereby one is expected to part with something to aid recovery. With the launch of the online land search this will hopefully come to an end.
However online land search will initially be limited to the Nairobi registry, other registries including Kajiado, Machakos, Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Bungoma, Thika, Kiambu and Meru will be available from March 2016. This is indeed a step in the right direction with the hope that all the services in the Lands Ministry will become fully automated in the near future.
It is important to note that there will be no manual Land Rent payments as from 1st February 2016 as all payments will have to be made online. Stamp Duty payments will also be available online as from 1st of March 2016.
How to conduct online land search
- Log onto the e-Citizen portal and sign up (if already registered sign in)
- Click on Ministry of Land, Housing & Urban Development link and choose Land Search
- Enter the title number e.g Nairobi/Block123/321. Fill the online form and submit.
- Confirm details and proceed to pay using the available payment methods which include mpesa, debit cards, credit cards or bank transfers.
- Once the payment has been confirmed, the applicant can then proceed to print the results. However, if you decide not to print the results will still be available online in your e-Citizen account.
Land Rent Payment
- Register by sending a sms with the word ‘lands’ to the number 21504. You will then receive a sms indicating that you have successfully subscribed to the land service.
- After registration one is required to dail *512# in order to be able to access the service.
- Once you dail *512# you will receive a prompt asking you whether you want to proceed with the registration. The prompt indicates that the service is charged at Kshs. 5.1 per sms.
- If you choose to proceed another prompt will give you options which include register your land, track application, pay land rent and the Likoni scheme.
- Register land, the Ministry would like to have contact details of all land owners. As such one is required to input their Title number, Full names, I.D number and Land Rent amount ( as it appears on title) . An advantage of this system is that once you have successfully registered, you will be notified if and when someone conducts a search on your parcel of land. I believe this will be helpful in this era of land grabbing.
- Track your application, enter your application number as sent to you upon booking your documents at Ardhi House.
- Pay land Rent, enter your land reference (LR) number, enter your I.D number and confirm your details. You will receive an SMS with payment options.