Last verified: September 2026
Kenya land registries are organized around registration units set out under the Land Registration Act, 2012, not around the 47 counties directly. The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning sits at the national level, each registration unit keeps its own land register and cadastral map at a registry tied to it, and the Ardhisasa platform is gradually pulling these separate paper registries into one digital system, county by county. Because many registration units still follow old district boundaries rather than current county lines, the registry holding your parcel’s record is not always the office at your county headquarters. Confirm it directly rather than assume.
Before you start: the registration section name printed on your title deed, or returned by an Ardhisasa search, is the actual key to finding the right registry. It is far more reliable than guessing based on which county the land happens to sit in today.
How are land registries in Kenya structured?
Three layers sit on top of each other. At the top is the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, which sets policy, oversees the Chief Land Registrar, and runs the national digitisation programme. Below that are the individual land registries, each attached to a registration unit and required by law to hold a land register, a cadastral map, parcel files, and a few other specific records for the parcels within it. Sitting alongside (and increasingly replacing the paper side of) both is Ardhisasa, the Ministry’s digital platform, which is meant to eventually give a single online window into records that used to live in dozens of separate physical offices.
The Land Registration Act, 2012 is the reason this looks the way it does. Before it came into force, Kenya ran three parallel land laws: the Registration of Titles Act, the Registered Land Act, and the Government Lands Act, each with its own registration mechanics and, in places, its own numbering conventions. The 2012 Act consolidated these into one framework and introduced the registration unit as the standard building block for how land records get organized and stored. If you have ever wondered why an old title deed looks nothing like a newer one, that consolidation, and the conversion exercise that followed it, is largely why.
What exactly is a registration unit?
Section 6 of the Land Registration Act, 2012 allows the National Land Commission, working with national and county government, to establish registration units by gazette notice. Each unit is then divided into registration sections, identified by name, and those sections can be further split into numbered or lettered blocks. Section 7 requires a registry to be maintained for every registration unit, holding the land register itself, a cadastral map, parcel files with supporting documents, geo-referenced plans, a presentation book recording applications in the order they were lodged, an alphabetical index of proprietors, and a register of powers of attorney.
In practice this is what gives you a parcel reference like “Kiambu/Ruaka/456” or “Nairobi/Block 82/123”: the first part names the registration section, the middle part (where it exists) names the block, and the number identifies the specific parcel within it. Older titles issued under the repealed laws often carried a bare L.R. number instead, tied to a registry index map rather than a named section. The Ministry has been running a title conversion exercise for years to move these older references into the current parcel-numbering format, which is one more reason two title deeds for similar land can look structurally different.
Do registration units match Kenya’s 47 counties?
Not neatly, and this is the point most buyers miss. Registration units and the districts and sections that came before them predate the 47 counties created under the 2010 Constitution by decades in some cases. When counties were carved out in 2013, the land registration map was not automatically redrawn to match county boundaries one-to-one. The Act does allow the Commission to establish or vary registration units at county level, and a fair amount of realignment has happened since, but “fair amount” is not the same as complete, and it has not happened on a fixed timetable everywhere.
The practical effect is that a registration section named after an old administrative division can still be the operative reference for land that now sits inside a differently-named county, or that a single county can contain more than one historical registration section with records held at more than one registry. A registry located in what looks like the wrong town, going by today’s county map, is not necessarily an error. It may simply be following boundaries that were drawn before the county existed.
What is Ardhisasa, and has it replaced physical registries?
Ardhisasa is the National Land Information Management System run by the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning. It launched with the Nairobi registry first, and the stated intention has always been to bring every registry onto it over time rather than all at once. The State Department for Lands says Ardhisasa launched in Nairobi in 2021 and has since reached Murang’a, Isiolo and Mombasa Island, with more Mombasa sections added in 2025 and 2026 and other counties to follow. That list is a moving target by design, so treat any figure you read, including this one, as a snapshot rather than a permanent status.
Where a county is fully onboarded, current title entries, new registrations and transfers are handled digitally, and a parcel search can usually be done online. Where it is not, or where a parcel’s older history has not yet been digitised, the physical file at the relevant registry remains the authoritative record, and some steps still require an in-person visit. Ardhisasa is a genuinely useful first stop for checking a parcel, but it is not yet a full substitute for the physical registry everywhere, and root-of-title documents in particular tend to live only in the paper file. Our guide to the manual registry process for land not yet on Ardhisasa walks through what to do when your search comes up empty online.
What role do Huduma Centres play in land services?
Huduma Centres are one-stop government service points run under the Huduma Kenya programme, hosting services from multiple ministries and agencies under one roof so people are not sent from office to office. Land services offered through Huduma Centres vary by location and have changed over time; processing applications for land subdivision is one service that has been consistently listed on the official Huduma Kenya portal. Centres are not themselves land registries and do not hold the parcel files, cadastral maps, or land registers that the Land Registration Act requires each registration unit’s registry to keep.
Think of a Huduma Centre as a convenient front door for certain applications and payments rather than the custodian of your record. For anything that depends on the actual state of the register, such as ownership, encumbrances, or disputes, the authoritative source is still the registry itself, or Ardhisasa where that registry has been digitised. Before making a special trip to a Huduma Centre for a land matter, it is worth confirming with the centre or on the Huduma Kenya website that the specific service you need is currently offered there.
How do I find which registry actually holds my parcel’s record?
This is the question that matters most for a buyer, and it has a fairly reliable process even without a directory of offices. I have seen people spend hours calling the wrong county office simply because they assumed the registry would be named after wherever the land is today. Working from the documents in front of you gets there faster.
- Read the registration section name and parcel or block number off the title deed, sale agreement, or any prior search certificate. That name, not the county, is the actual filing reference.
- Run a search on Ardhisasa using that parcel number first. If the parcel comes up, the registry has already been digitised and you can transact through the platform without needing to identify a physical office at all.
- If it does not appear on Ardhisasa, the registration section is still handled on paper. Contact the county land office for the area the section actually covers, which may not be your own county of residence, and ask which registry holds records for that section.
- An advocate or licensed land surveyor who regularly works in that area will usually know the registry by name and can confirm it faster than a general enquiry.
- Get the current physical address, phone number, and opening hours through an official channel at the time you need them: Ardhisasa’s own help resources, the Ministry of Lands website, or a direct call to the relevant county office. Do this rather than relying on any printed or online list, including ours.
What if my parcel still isn’t on Ardhisasa?
A parcel not showing up on Ardhisasa is common and not itself a red flag; it simply means you are dealing with a registry that has not migrated yet, or a record whose earlier history has not been scanned in. The process shifts to a manual search and physical file review at that registry, with its own forms, fees, and timeline. We cover that process step by step in our guide to handling land not yet on Ardhisasa, and the broader verification steps, including consent, search, valuation, stamp duty, and lodgement, are laid out in our complete guide to verifying land and title deeds in Kenya. For a closer look at reading the parcel numbers themselves, see Title Numbers and Parcel Numbers in Kenya.
Watch out for: directories that go stale
Registry offices get renamed, merged, moved to new buildings, or migrated onto Ardhisasa, and phone numbers change hands. A directory of exact addresses and contacts, however carefully compiled, is out of date the moment one office moves. We have deliberately kept specific office addresses and phone numbers out of this guide for that reason. Confirm them fresh, each time, through Ardhisasa’s help resources, the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning’s official website, or a direct call to the county office in question.
Frequently asked questions
How many land registries are there in Kenya?
There is no single fixed number worth quoting here, because registration units can be varied by gazette notice and Ardhisasa is steadily changing what counts as a separate physical registry versus a digitised entry point. What matters more than the count is that each registration unit has its own registry under the Land Registration Act, and that these units historically followed old district and section boundaries rather than the current 47 counties.
Is Ardhisasa replacing physical land registries entirely?
Not yet, and not everywhere. Ardhisasa is being rolled out registry by registry, starting with Nairobi and expanding into other counties over time. Where a registry is fully onboarded, most day-to-day transactions move online. Where it is not, or where older historical documents have not been digitised, the physical file at that registry remains the reference point, and some steps still need an in-person visit.
My title deed does not mention a county. How do I know which registry has it?
Look for the registration section name in the parcel or LR number instead of the county. That name is the actual filing reference under the Land Registration Act, and it is what you use to search Ardhisasa or to ask a county land office which registry holds the file, since the section may not share its name with the county the land sits in today.
Can I do a full land search at a Huduma Centre?
Some Huduma Centres offer specific land-related applications, such as processing subdivision requests, but Huduma Centres are not land registries and do not hold the register or cadastral map themselves. For a title search, Ardhisasa or the registry that actually holds the record is the correct channel; confirm with the centre in advance whether the specific service you need is available there.
What happens if my land’s registration section spans an area that now covers two counties?
This does happen, since registration sections were often drawn along old administrative lines that do not track today’s county borders exactly. The registry tied to that registration unit remains the correct one regardless of which county name appears on current maps. A local advocate, surveyor, or the county land office can confirm which registry is responsible for a specific section.
Do I still need to visit a registry in person if my county is on Ardhisasa?
Often no, for routine searches and current-generation transactions once a registry is onboarded. However, root-of-title documents, older historical records, and certain disputes or corrections may still require a physical file review at the registry, even after that registry has joined Ardhisasa for current transactions.
Where can I find the current, correct contact details for my land registry?
Go directly to an official source rather than a third-party list: Ardhisasa’s own help and support resources, the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning’s official website, or a phone call to the relevant county land office. Office locations and contacts change often enough that even a well-researched list can be wrong by the time you use it.
What is the difference between an old LR number and a new parcel number?
An LR (Land Reference) number was the reference format used under the laws the Land Registration Act, 2012 repealed, typically tied to a registry index map rather than a named registration section. The current parcel-numbering format identifies the registration section (and block, where one exists) by name, followed by the parcel number, giving a direct link to the registry and section responsible for that land. The Ministry has been converting older titles into this format over several years.
See also: The Complete Guide to Verifying Land and Title Deeds in Kenya, Land Not on Ardhisasa: The Manual Registry Process, Title Numbers and Parcel Numbers in Kenya, and How to Do an Ardhisasa Land Search Step by Step.
Paul researched Kenya’s land verification process in depth to build this guide, drawing on Ardhisasa’s official documentation and Kenya’s land registration regulations. Questions or corrections: admin@landtitlehub.co.ke.
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