County governments are turning to digital land records and geospatial technologies in a fresh push to improve revenue collection, planning and public administration across the country.

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The initiative is being supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the Council of Governors (CoG) through a digital land governance programme targeting all 47 counties.

The programme seeks to strengthen county capacity in land administration, planning, natural resource management and the use of data to support decision-making and service delivery.

Nairobi City County Finance Executive Ibrahim Auma said digitising land records could help counties identify properties and other datasets that have been left out of existing revenue systems.

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“Counties hold large volumes of information which, if properly collected and integrated, can help expand the tax base, increase own-source revenue and improve public administration,” Auma said.

The push comes amid concerns over the reliability of digital land systems, with the Law Society of Kenya raising concerns over the continued unavailability of the ArdhiSasa platform since September 1, 2026.

LSK said the outage had disrupted searches, transfers, registrations, valuations and other land transactions , calling for clear communication, a restoration timeline and contingency measures for urgent transactions.

“The outage highlights the need for reliable digital systems and proper contingency measures, while digitisation remains important for improving efficiency and transparency in land administration,” LSK said.

Auma said the county initiative would also promote the use of geospatial technologies in development planning and public administration, helping governments make better use of information already in their possession.

The Council of Governors representative said more than 1,000 county government officers had so far been trained, including personnel working in geospatial services, urban planning and disaster risk management.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke