Registration of Private Land in Kenya

This is the next in the series of blog posts on research into applying ICTs to the data capture element of land registration. The previous blog post was titled: Affordable Tools for Demarcation of Land are Widely Available.

In one of our previous posts, we wrote about the requirements and the process of registering community land in Kenya. In this post, we describe the process and requirements for the registration of private un-surveyed and surveyed land in Kenya.

Registration of Private Un-surveyed Land

Registration of Private Surveyed Land
Authors: Primoz Kovacic, Michelle Gathigi, Justus Muhando, Brian Odongo Christopher, Alan Mills

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]

[1] A search is a document from the land registry showing the details of the land, the current owner, size, and if they are any encumbrances or restrictions. This stage is very important as it shows if someone else owns the land of if the land has been registered before. It takes three to five days.

[2] This certificate is proof that there are no outstanding fees to be paid to the Municipality.

[3] For Agricultural Land, the LCB must give its consent. This Application is made using a prescribed form.

[4] The property is valued, amount endorsed on the transfer form and this is what is assessed for stamp duty.

[5] This service is not officially charged. You are only required to pay for the valuer’s transport services to get to the property.

[6] Stamp Duty is now exclusively applied for on the iTax portal. See procedure here.

[7] Stamp duty is valued at 4% (of the value of the property) for urban land and 2% for agricultural land.