Nairobi — The Ministry of Lands has launched the Cashless Revenue Collection Policy in measures to tame corruption.
According to Cabinet Secretary Zacharia Njeru, the policy will mandate the use of M-Pesa and banks for payment of services.
He further pointed out that it is part of the government's strategy to deal with cartels at the Ministry.
"We are doing this because we want to improve on service delivery of our people and the major gap, we want to fill is to ensure the services are efficient, fast and this will eradicate the middlemen to avoid Kenyans using other ways to get the services," he said.
Njeru explained that the government had set up the Arthisasa payment system, which is connected to e-citizen and requires registration before any transactions can be processed.
"One is required to log into ardhisasa.lands.go.ke, register an account to begin transacting and under Land Administration, click on Land Rent, then click on Pay Land Rent, enter Title Number on the Search section using the following formats: Registration Unit/Registration Section/Parcel Number," he said.
He further stated that the ministry will carry out an audit of its registry across the country to enhance service delivery the readiness for cashless collection.
The CS added the audit will be spearheaded by eight teams in an exercise that will take 14 days which they will visit each registry and give a status report on the readiness of digitization.
The team's goal includes scanning all documents on the registry to be available on the electronic platform.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"On digitization, I want to announce that we are almost to be done with Nairobi however with challenges we believe while going to other parts of the country we hope the whole exercise will be fast now that the required resources have been availed," Njeru said.
"The whole process is a collective exercise that has to be done with the necessary stakeholders to ensure that all Kenyans are served as required."
Principal Secretary for Lands Nixon Korir said the Ministry came into an agreement with Kenya Revenue Authority to allow the Ministry to be a one-stop shop where users can process and pay stamp duty.
He said it is a huge step toward ending cash transactions at Land offices, which will ultimately lower theft.
"Treasury has provided a separate account for stamp duty where the members can process and pay for the stamp duty in any Arthi Houses or our registries and the money is now sent to KRA," he said.
"This will save time and will ensure efficiency both in the ministry and the KRA."
