The cadastral system in Kenya was established in 1903 to cater for land alienation for the white settlers. Since then, a hundred years later, the structure of the system has remained more or less the same despite major changes in surveying technology. The government of Kenya has realized that the current structure is not conducive to economic demands of the 21st century and is interested in re-organizing the structure in line with the current constitutional dispensation and new paradigms in land management.

Land registries play a key role in protecting landholders against dispossession and promoting good governance and economic development. Effective land agencies provide efficient and accessible land registration services, transparent land information, and clear ownership records to prevent disputes. Accurate records of property rights provide a basis for delivering services such as water or electricity, levying property taxes, enforcing zoning and environmental laws, and are necessary (although not sufficient) for landholders to use their properties as collateral.

In many countries, unidentified private individuals and legal entities obtain significant economic benefits from land. This lack of transparency can make it harder for affected communities and governments to hold them accountable for land use decision-making and any sort of violation they commit. It can also leave investors open to risk if they do not know who is truly behind a company they are doing business with. 

Data and information on land are fundamental for enabling smallholder farmers to gain secure access and control over their land, which provides the basis for investing in their operations.
This briefing paper outlines the importance and benefits of increasing the availability and accessibility of land information in support of improved food security and nutrition.

Mining Cadastre Portal 

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Key points

• Global availability of land ownership and land deals data is patchy, but, when available, it has been used by individual citizens, entrepreneurs, civil society, and journalists.

• Over the last decade, a number of responsible data lessons have been learned. These lessons can provide guidance on how to balance transparency and privacy and on how to draw research conclusions from partial data.

lack of transparency in the land and property sector prevents individuals, communities and governments from unlocking the value of the property as an asset, and undermines policies and legal frameworks that aim to provide land tenure security, potentially leading to a misallocation of rights. In fact, land governance is ranked among the sectors in which people are most likely to pay bribes for access to services, according to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer.