From ‘old’ to ‘new generation’ allotment letters: The politics of data assemblage in Kajiado County’s land validation processes
Paper proposed to be presented at the workshop: Data Politics of Housing and Planning, organised by the ERC funded project, ‘Data Stories: Telling Stories about and with Planning and Property Data’
Dennis M. Muthama and Mariana Reyes
Similar to other county governments in Kenya, Kajiado County government has undertaken a strategy to improve its service delivery through digitisation. To that end, the county administration has implemented several digital initiatives including the Kajiado County Land Information Management System (LIMS). The LIMS was designed to modernise and digitise the issuance of new generation allotment letters, facilitate security of tenure, support and planned urbanisation, and improve land revenue collection. To implement the system, several processes across the data lifecycle have been undertaken to resolve past maladministration by the defunct local authorities. This paper explores the intersection of digitalisation, data politics, and urban land registration in Kajiado County. Drawing upon twelve months of ethnographic observations, archival research, and in-depth interviews with state officials and GIS consultants, we critically analyse the land data collection and verification process involved in establishing the Kajiado County’s LIMS. We delve into the intricacies of how land data is sourced, captured, processed, and verified to ascertain and delineate plot boundaries, update the urban land ownership catalogue, and ultimately, generate allotment letters featuring bar codes, QR codes, and other digital stamps. Concurrently, we discuss the new challenges stemming from the land validation process undertaken by the Kajiado County government, including allegations of a lack of transparency, participant distrust, and the emergence of new forms of fraud. In summary, we contend that the assemblage of data on land ownership in Kajiado is a complex, non-linear, and contested process that is further complicated by ongoing urbanisation and related land speculation in the region.