A Land Administration Model Based on Blockchain Technology

Abstract

To a large extent, land administration in Kenya is paper based, there are millions of paperbased land records at the various land registries across the country. The provision of services to citizens has progressively declined due to accumulation of unmanageable huge volume of paper based records. In this era of digital transformation and ongoing calls for citizen-centered services, this scenario is untenable. Traditional database management systems do not guarantee data integrity as they are still prone to manipulation. The overall objective of this study was to review and analyse the application of blockchain technology and develop an immutable land administration model based on blockchain technology. The specific objectives of this research were to review and analyse literature on the application of Blockchain Technology for land administration, to analyse Smart contracts as key components of the Blockchain technology applicable to the land administration, to design, develop and simulate an immutable Land administration solution based on Blockchain technology and to evaluate the prototype developed for purposes of analysing its efficacy. The study adopted Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) to guide the research and development of the proposed prototype. The study reveals that leveraging on blockchain which is a distributed ledger has the potential to resolve the key issues affecting the trust levels of land administration systems. The study identified the issues limiting the trust levels of land administration systems as lack of data integrity, transparency, verifiability and traceability in land processes. The study concludes that incorporation of blockchain technology presents itself as a crucial and invaluable solution necessary to increase the degree of trust in land management systems. Blockchain's intrinsic qualities: transparency and immutability, address persistent issues like fraud and data manipulation, promoting a more dependable and secure land register. However, in order to fully utilize blockchain, business process reengineering must be prioritized at the same time. Gaining maximum productivity from blockchain requires streamlining and getting rid of redundant operations. To ensure the effective assimilation of blockchain technology in land administration, a strong legislative framework that governs and allows the use of developing technologies is also necessary. This framework should guarantee legal clarity, accountability, and standard compliance in addition to offering a basis for the deployment of blockchain technology among other emerging technologies.