As you have probably heard and seen in the news, the much-anticipated title conversion process is now underway. With the first four batches of new title numbers for the county of Nairobi already released, the process is projected to be completed by December 2022.

Why is this happening?

This title conversion process is part of the ongoing registry digitisation process at the Ministry of Lands. Over the years, title deeds have been issued under multiple regimes. We, therefore, have different registration systems depending on the year a title was produced and whether it is freehold or leasehold. 

This title deed conversion exercise will bring all titles under the same regime, thereby creating one unified national set of records.

Why is it a good thing?

The digitisation process has elicited a lot of fear and scepticism among the general public. To many in the real estate industry and those who have purchased or sold land or property before, it is a most welcome exercise. It will streamline the land registration processes while eliminating many of the gaps exploited by fraudsters. 

Consider the process of transferring a logbook for a car or paying for/applying for a new license? The digitisation of all these processes at the NTSA has shortened the time it takes to process vehicle registrations, we no longer need to stand in long lines for hours, and counterfeit licenses are now quickly flagged.

Imagine the same ease when doing your next land transaction once the digitisation process is complete—for example, the ability to conduct a title search right from the convenience of your home or mobile device, to verify the ownership of the piece of land you are considering with extreme accuracy.

Once complete, title registrations are projected to take no more than a single day but to achieve this, we must first go through the process of digitising our land records and consolidating all titles under one unified system with accuracy.

So what do you need to do if you hold tiles?

Most of the instructions have been released via several gazette notices and various announcements by the Ministry of Lands. We have created a dedicated page on our website to track them and help you stay up to date with the most critical communications. Check it out here

Watch our conversation on this with Caroline Mutoko. We hope you will find it informative.