[kictanet] Preventing Land Ownership Fraud by "Crowd-Sourcing" information

[Thomas Kibui]

Dear Listers,

I am not sure if this has been discussed here or better still if it has
been implemented somewhere but I will go ahead and talk abt it....

We have a constitution and land laws that are being flouted by corrupt
officials entrusted with enforcing them for material gain. For instance if
you do a search for a piece of registered land, and you get a search
results duly signed and stamped by the registrar of lands at that office
then the information there is in binding and should also BIND the
government who is the final authority in land governance because the buyer
commits his/her funds to a purchase based on the information given at the
registry.

We have very MANUAL registries where documents are stored in files in a
library like setup and  the core of those registries is a binder that holds
the so called "green cards". One could liken the green card to the primary
key in a DB. Due to the physical / manual methods used to change
information on these paper documents and the fact that they have to be
"physically" accessed, removed, edited and returned, they create a
loop-hole for unscrupulous lands officials to change the content thus
destroying the written history associated with a parcel of land and
consequently depriving the real owners of their property / inheritance.

A simple solution would be to digitize the registry .. but as you can
imagine there would be a lot of resistance from the Lands officials because
that completely takes away their source of corrupt funds. I know it will
eventually be digitized BUT what can we do in the interim ... between now
and the time that the registries will eventually be digitized ...   ?

Land does not move... its is people who do the moving... One can never fail
to get the history of a piece of land from the surrounding neighbourhood
and this is one of the  "social" searches that one is advised to do when
considering the purchase of a parcel somewhere. So why can't we tap into
this free source of information as a way of counter checking  the already
tampered information which exists in local land registries

I was thinking that using the technology available today we could create a
free online database or use one of the existing social media sites to
create an online "Land Search"  resource where everyday ordinary Kenyans
can check the "social" status and history of a parcel , correlate it with
the information from the registry before making a decision to purchase..
The information from this DB or Social Media site will not be "legally"
binding  BUT it will raise red flags prevent the fraud considerably given
that most land fraud cartels use deception and mis-information of
"Government held information" to convince their victims.

To populate it, I am thinking in the lines of "crowd-sourcing" this
information and if possible tie it in on Google maps just like in
www.ushahidi.com.  This way , the database can show a piece of land as Red,
Amber or Green depending its social history eg,

   - who initially owned it,
   - was it inherited properly,
   - was there a dispute,
   - are there wives or children who were dis-inherited who might come out
   of the wood-work after the purchase .

Mapping it directly on google maps will alow the would be buyer to do a GPS
search of sorts when he or she is "viewing" physically on the ground . This
will also prevent the other form of fraud where the victim is shown a
parcel which is not the one on the purported papers. There are other uses
for such a database .. If YOU owns a piece of land somewhere, you can also
flag it as RED to prevent fraudsters selling it with out your knowledge and
fleecing an innocent victim out there. Look at it like putting a legal
Caution of Caveat Emptor on a registered property   etc etc

This idea  has its CONS .. Malicious relatives, mpango was kando
husbands/wives,  neighbours etc can stop you from selling or getting a bank
loan from your genuine land by flagging it red or mis-informing the public
about it. etc

Now I am basically a Network / Security guy and I have never written a line
of code so I can't  tell you how this can be implemented "technically"
otherwise it would be online as we speak ....  But having seen the
destruction peoples dreams and  hard earned money  in the demolition of
structures in Syokimau and Eastleigh .. I can't just sympathize with the
victims and stop there ... They were conned yet some were holding "genuine"
papers from the government they trusted as the most trusted land ownership
authority.

I believe that there is something that can be done to prevent it and I am
throwing this to the listers to build on and if possible .. IMPLEMENT it..
I am open to contribute wherever I can.

PS: Since the framework for Ushahidi.com. already exists, maybe Ory and his
team could assist ..

karibu ...
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