The countless trips to the registry of lands and courts carrying loads of papers for land succession could soon come to an end after a parliamentary committee backed a petition seeking to digitize the process.
The National Assembly committee on Public Petitions has recommended to the House Law of Succession Act and other relevant laws to make succession of land done digitally through e-Citizen and in Huduma Centres spread across the country.
In order to achieve the Law of Succession Act, the Land Registration Act, 2012 and the Civil Registration Act (Cap.149) will be amended in order to provide a legal basis for electronic grants of representation and digital succession certificates.
The recommendation follows the committee’s adoption of a petition filed in the House by former Taita Taveta governor John Mrutu seeking to make the process easier, cheaper and accessible to the majority of Kenyans.
“The committee recommends that the Attorney General operationalize an Integrated Digital Succession platform through Huduma Centres and e-Citizen portal and that a dedicated probate registry be established at the county level in all the 47 counties within the 2026/27 financial year,” reads the report.
The digital portal will be accessible through Huduma Centres and the e-Citizen platform which will provide a platform for filling applications, tracking status, serving notices and paying the required fees.
Currently, the succession registry domiciled at the Judiciary, civil registration which is at the Department of Civil Registration and the land registration system at the Ministry of Lands operate in silos without automated interfaces, hence delaying the succession process due to the need to physically verify certified copies at each stage.
Janet Nyaguthi, a 70-year-old widow, and her family have been forced to sleep in the cold after being aggressively evicted on June 17 from their South B property.
Photo credit: Shutterstock
“Succession procedures should be accessible, affordable and responsive to the realities faced by ordinary citizens. When families are unable to complete succession because the process is too costly, too complex or too distant, the constitutional promise of equal justice becomes difficult to realize in practice,” reads the report.
The committee noted that delayed succession disproportionately affects vulnerable groups, particularly widows and youth.
“Widows who may have contributed significantly to the acquisition and development of family assets often continue to experience uncertainty regarding security of tenure. Young people, on the other hand, frequently inherit land without inheriting the opportunity to utilize it productively,” reads the report.
The committee noted that although succession is fundamentally a legal and administrative matter governed by the Law of Succession Act (Cap. 160), the current legal and administrative framework does not adequately facilitate accessible, affordable and timely succession procedures
The committee pointed out that the succession law procedures currently structured are complex, costly and inaccessible to ordinary citizens and takes up to 20 years to conclude.
Currently, one is required to pay Sh2, 500 as a court filing fee for a succession case in court. Although one doesn’t require a legal representative in succession cases, legal representation becomes important when the land in question is contested or in estates involving complex assets.
According to the Law of Succession Act, without this process, you cannot legally transfer, sell, or subdivide inherited land; it is mandatory that the whole property of the deceased be transferred to the rightful beneficiaries, and the court must be involved.
Among the documents that will be required by the court include original death certificate of the deceased, original title deed or relevant land ownership documents, identification cards (IDs) and KRA PIN certificates of the beneficiaries.
The family of the deceased will also be required to provide a letter from the local area Chief confirming the family members and dependents of the deceased.
The family must appoint an administrator(s) to manage the estate. An advocate then files a succession petition at the High Court or a local Magistrate's Court, depending on the value of the land.
Once the petition is filed, a notice is published in the Kenya Gazette. This provides a 30-day window for any members of the public to raise objections or claims.
If no objections are raised after 30 days, the court issues the initial Grant (Probate or Letters of Administration)
After the six months, the administrators return to court to apply for the confirmation of grant. This document details exactly how the land should be distributed among the heirs
Once the grant is confirmed, the land can be formally transferred.
For legally registered land, the final transaction is done online using the government’s Ardhisasa portal.
However, if there are complex processes or disputes among the dependents of the deceased, the process can drag in court for years.
