Blockchain: Safeguarding Kenyan Land from Fraud The Future for Land Administration?
The growth of a country has to involve land management since it has a direct bearing on ownership rights, economic growth, and the general welfare of its citizens. Land management has always been a difficult and frequently disputable topic in Kenya, a nation with a diverse and rich landscape. The challenges facing land administration in Kenya are many, ranging from problems with land division, documentation, fraud, thievery, and public ignorance.
Only a small percentage of land parcels in Kenya have undergone complete computerization, indicating an incomplete digital transformation of land data. At the Environment and Land Court Judges’ Annual Conference in Naivasha on July 31, 2023, Zachariah Njeru, the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing, and Urban Development at the time, announced that land record digitization in Nairobi County was almost complete and launches in Mombasa and Murang’a counties were scheduled.
Due to the digital divide in land administration, there is already a significant backlog of millions of pending land and property transactions, which regrettably provides an ideal environment for fraud. Sadly, a great number of unsuspecting citizens have fallen for these frauds, gullibly buying houses and land on the basis of forged title deeds, only to discover afterward that their investments are located on other people’s property. Such dishonest practices often result in evictions, property destruction, and significant financial losses, leaving people without land or compelled to live as squatters. A noteworthy example of these demolitions occurred in Athi River, Machakos County, where more than fifty homes—including houses of worship like churches and mosques—were demolished after the land occupation was ruled unlawful by the Machakos High Court.
Land adjudication in various areas, which depends on old diagrams from unrectified aerial photos taken many years ago to speed up registration, is still pending. The ambitious goal of achieving comprehensive demarcation by the year 2030 now seems a distant mirage, with only a few years left to realize the once-prominent Vision 2030. This backlog not only makes it more difficult to transfer land efficiently, but it also provides an opportunity for corruption as dishonest government officials take advantage of the loopholes in the system to pursue their own agendas. Public trust is further undermined by the persistent concern that government employees are corrupt.
Transactions are often laden with difficulties when the general population is uninformed. Since many people are unaware of the intricate processes involved in buying and selling property, unethical individuals in the land administration process can easily take advantage of them. Such problems have consequences that go beyond just property rights. Since land is a vital factor in production, it impedes economic growth. Transaction delays hamper the nation’s progress and economic prosperity.
Emerging technologies offer a spark of hope in this situation. Blockchain technology, acknowledged for its transparency, security, and efficiency, offers an effective solution to the various difficulties facing Kenya’s land administration system. By implementing blockchain, Kenya may address concerns of fraud, corruption, and ignorance, ultimately protecting its people’s rights and stimulating economic growth. We would become only the second country in the world and the first in Africa to fully operationalize the blockchain-based land registry after Georgia. Other attempts and pilot projects are already in place in countries such as Sweden, Estonia, and Honduras. However, it is important to note that a country ought to have efficient frameworks in place as prerequisites for the blockchain registry. A case study in Georgia revealed that Georgia, before the blockchain revolution, already had an advanced e-government system with a significant number of government services available online, a sustained public-private partnership that built the foundation of the blockchain registry system, and a legal framework to propel the blockchain technology in land registration.
What Really is Block-Chain Technology in Land and Property Administration?
I intend to break this down so even the village fool will nod in profound understanding. Now take a deep breath, get comfy, and unleash your inner explorers as we journey through this enlightening expedition of knowledge.
I want you to assume that you have a notebook. This notebook records all information about a particular property, whether money, houses, cars, or even land. In the context of land, this notebook stores all information about that particular parcel of land, such as the names of the owner, the ID number of the owner, the size of the land, the specific location, the dimensions of the land, etc. This notebook is divided into pages. Each page on this notebook contains a list of transactions that have been done on the parcel of land, as well as all relevant documents supporting that transaction, such as agreements, details of the involved parties, etc. Transactions include sub-divisions, leases, and transfers of ownership—I mean, all dealings that can be done on a parcel of land. Every time another transaction is done on this parcel of land, a new page is created on this notebook, and all that pertains to the transaction is recorded on the new page.
Now, this is where it gets really interesting. This notebook is not kept by you alone, by any individual, or by any particular authority alone. It is kept by everyone. Every citizen has a copy of this notebook. Once any transaction is done on any land parcel in the country, as said earlier, a new page is created to record the details of that transaction. This notebook has a magical way of communicating with everyone’s notebook, ensuring the new page is added to everyone’s notebook. Assuming that this corrupt lady who has a ‘big office’ wants to manipulate something in order to steal property or sell it illegally to someone, she would need to convince at least 50% of Kenyans to change whatever is recorded in their notebooks so that the corrupt dealing can even make sense. It’s like adding your own book to the Bible or the Quran and staring in astonishment at why everyone else’s Bible or Quran doesn’t have the book you just added. That’s crazy, right?
Let’s even pretend a silly goose somewhere would be bold enough to embark on a mission to convince 50% of Kenyans to alter their notebooks in order to facilitate a corrupt transaction. I had not mentioned the layers of security he or she would have to go through. As said earlier, our notebook is not just any ordinary notebook. This notebook’s unique ability to communicate with other people’s notebooks is not just for creating copies of pages. Actually, before any page is created for a new transaction, there is a mechanism for all the notebooks to counter-check the details they have recorded to ensure they are similar. Assuming that a parcel of land is up for sale and you want to buy it, but the seller is not actually the owner of the land but has just altered the details of a few notebooks to deceive you. The notebook will liaise with all others to confirm whether the name of the registered owner is similar on every notebook, failing which the transaction will be invalidated and therefore not recorded. At this point, you should even be picturing this notebook as one with the ability to convene a baraza and pronounce judgment on a fraudster. That was on a light note, though. Basically, a transaction involving any document that is altered in the slightest way will be flagged off and notifications sent to relevant parties.
One secretive brother might be wondering how this notebook will protect his privacy since he doesn’t want every Tom, Dick, and Harry to know what property he owns and all the other details. Or should I say every Jane, Rose, and Mary since they are most likely the people who take it upon themselves to play detective and find out every nook and cranny of their husbands’ property ownership? After all, curiosity didn’t just kill the cat; it made a few husbands spill the beans! In case you missed it the first time, let me say it again: this notebook is not your ordinary notebook where you can just pluck a page like a ripe fruit and savour it at your leisure. Information in this notebook is not stored in a format that you can just open and start reading. It is encrypted with a key. Let me explain what this encryption means. I told you even the village fools are bound to take a nugget of wisdom today.
Encryption simply means information is stored in unique symbols that only the writer knows. If I want to encrypt the name MAXWELL, and I pick a drawing of a mouse to represent letter M, a donkey to represent A, number 4 to represent letter X, a comma to represent W, a small letter h to represent E, a dash to represent L, and the word ‘hey’ to represent the last letter L. So the notebook page will have a drawing of a mouse,a donkey, number 4, a comma, the small letter ‘h’, a dash, and the word ‘hey’. There is no way on earth anyone would know that all that represents the name MAXWELL unless you tell someone, or rather, give someone the key to decrypt the information into a logical or readable format. This is how information is transacted on our magical notebook, such that only the owner can read what is actually stored on the notebooks. So even if your notebook contains data about everyone’s property, you will never read it if they don’t allow you to. After all, the only reason why it’s essential for everyone to have a copy of the data in the first place is to ensure no one can alter the data from his end; otherwise, he might have to alter it on everyone’s notebook.
If our magical notebook were to be used for land and property registration in Kenya, it would ensure clarity, honesty, and transparency, consequently earning everyone’s trust since it’s unchangeable. Except that now it’s not a notebook, and every page on the notebook is a block, and the pages are all linked together in a chain network—the Blockchain!
A blockchain is a constantly revised list (chain) of records (blocks) linked by digitally encrypted data interchange that no individual has absolute control over. Unlike the common concept of a single storage device like a computer hard drive or a server, the blockchain utilizes distributed ledger technology, where all members of the chain collectively store the data. So data is stored in different locations, hence the distinctive characteristic of immutability. In the case of property registration, each property would have a dedicated digital block in the blockchain network. The block would contain all data about the property, such as boundaries, names of the proprietors, and all other relevant documents. All blocks are linked to the previous ones. Whenever there’s a property transaction, whether it’s a sale, transfer, lease, or any change in ownership or status, a new entry is added to the property’s block that is linked to the previous one. This entry details what happened, who was involved, and when it occurred. It’s like creating a digital paper trail for that parcel, quite similar to the green cards in our Kenyan land registries but in a digital format. Since the digital ledger is shared among all people involved in property administration, such as government agencies, property owners, banks, and other entities, all the transactions can be seen and retrieved from any end. This makes it impossible for anyone to secretly alter anything. Also, you can’t go back to previous records and alter them since that would mean changing all the subsequent blocks as well, which is computationally impractical due to the nature of the algorithms used to validate the creation of new blocks. In the context of land management, a blockchain functions as a massive, shared, tamper-proof, and extremely secure digital ledger that records the ownership of individual parcels of land. It guarantees that land transactions are impartial and transparent to everyone involved, reliable, and difficult to tamper with.
Generally, the advantages of Blockchain in land administration in Kenya would be:
- Fighting Fraud
Blockchain technology offers a strong barrier against fraudulent land deals. Because blockchain records are unchangeable, fraudulent title deeds and property disputes are less common, shielding Kenyan property owners from potential scams.
- Transparency and confidence
Blockchain promotes trust among all parties, from government institutions to private property owners, by creating an accessible and shared ledger for property information. Transparency is especially important in a country like Kenya, where land conflicts are prevalent, given that it allows for accurate and open land administration.
- Improved Productivity and Efficiency
Implementing blockchain technology in land and property administration delivers exceptional efficiency and productivity improvements in Kenya, where land is an essential component of production. The time and paperwork required for property transfers are drastically reduced by accelerating land transactions using blockchain. This not only tackles the existing backlog of pending land and property transactions but also fuels higher productivity in multiple sectors of the economy since land transactions become more seamless and accessible to investment and development.
- Property Owners Empowerment
Blockchain restores control to property owners. They have the authority to accept or reject any potential transactions, ensuring that their interests are protected. This empowers Kenyan individuals, particularly in light of the fact that many are victims of fraudulent land deals.
- Accountability and Conflict Resolution
Since the blockchain maintains a record of all land documents, it is evident who made modifications and when. In a nation where conflicts over land and illegal eviction are major problems, this degree of accountability is crucial. These disagreements may be settled with the use of the blockchain’s transparent and unchangeable records.
Blockchain isn’t just a game-changer; it’s the whole game! In the land of majestic savannahs, the blockchain would be the superhero, promising to conquer land management challenges like a true Maasai warrior wrestling a lion. While we can’t guarantee that blockchain will stop your neighbor’s goats from nibbling on your hedges, it would be a giant leap towards secure, efficient, and, dare we say, faster transactions than a Kalenjin athlete. It would undoubtedly usher in a new era of land management in Kenya, with fewer disagreements, increased productivity, and possibly even a few less mischievous goats! It would make Kenyan land not just a piece of earth but a piece of prosperity. It’s about time we embrace this technology. And who knows? Maybe someday we’ll gather around the campfire and tell tales of the days when land fraud was a thing. It’s the kind of progress that even the village fool would applaud—no fooling!