The County Government of Kirinyaga has established a Geographic Information System (GIS) lab to improve service delivery in the county Department of Lands.
GIS is a technology that integrates hardware, software, and data that enables the storage, management, analysis, and modeling of geospatial data that enables decision-making in matters such as urban planning, disaster management, environmental conservation, and commerce.
The lab, which is pivotal to the digitization of land records, will enable the County Government to streamline operations and enhance customer service, transparency, and accuracy and will go a long way in eliminating fraud and grabbing of public land.
“This will help to streamline operations and improve service delivery in our lands department,” said the county’s Governor, Anne Waiguru.
The GIS lab that is located at the County Headquarters in Kutus has been established in collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to modernize land governance processes and promotion of sustainable land development. Kirinyaga is predominantly an agricultural county that heavily depends on natural resources with land being a fundamental asset for economic growth.
The County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for lands, Samuel Kanjobe, said that the system will strengthen the county’s ability to manage land governance effectively and enhance planning and decision-making on land matters.
He said that the lab has the requisite hardware which includes computers, workstations, a modern plotter, and software to enable the digitization process adding that the department is now moving to data collection in plots and land in at least 135 market and trading centers in the county.
“The process will include picking geographic coordinates of our lands and create a database which includes ownership details, sizes, and land use,” he said adding that the GIS will minimize issues of double allocation,and ownership disputes and will also enhance precision in revenue collection.
The County Director of Physical Planning, Murage Muraguri, said that the department is in the process of converting the analog data to a digital format that will be compatible with the GIS.
“Thereafter, customers will be linked to the system to enable them to access some of the services through their digital devices,” he noted.
The County Government Act 2012 mandates County Governments to establish GIS-based database systems and prepare GIS-based database County Spatial Plans.
