How to Do a Land Search in Kenya on Ardhisasa: Step by Step, What It Costs and What the Results Mean

In short, an official land search is the one document which tells you who owns a parcel today and what is registered against it, and for Nairobi and the counties which have moved onto Ardhisasa it is applied for online, costs a few hundred shillings and comes back within a day once the owner consents. This article takes you through registration, the search itself and how to read the result, then explains what to do when a title does not appear, how searches work in counties still on paper, and why a clean search is the beginning of due diligence rather than the end of it.

What a land search is, and why you run one first

Every registered parcel in Kenya has a page in a register kept by the land registry for its area. The page records the parcel number, its size and tenure, the registered proprietor, and every charge, caveat, caution, restriction and court order lodged against it. An official search is a certified copy of what is on the page on the day you ask. It is the only document in a land transaction which comes from the registry rather than from the seller, which is why it is the first thing you obtain and the last thing you obtain again before completion.

A search is not proof the register is right. Under section 26 of the Land Registration Act, 2012 a registered title is conclusive save for fraud, misrepresentation, illegality or a corrupt scheme, and every one of those exceptions is litigated daily. Our article on verifying a title deed sets out the six further checks which follow the search. But nothing sensible happens before it, and nobody with a genuine title objects to one.

Where Ardhisasa applies

Ardhisasa is the National Land Information System run by the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development. It went live for Nairobi in April 2021 and has since been extended to other counties in phases, with more registries migrating each year. Where a registry has migrated, searches, stamp duty, transfers, charges and most other dealings run through the platform and the old counter service has closed. Where it has not, the search is still done on paper at the county land registry, and the second half of this article covers it. The platform itself lists the registries it currently serves, and the position changes, so check it or ask your advocate before assuming either way.

Registering on Ardhisasa

You search under your own account, so registration comes first and it is done once. You need a Kenyan national identity card or, for a foreign national, a passport and an alien card, a KRA PIN, a Kenyan mobile number which receives the one-time codes, and an e-mail address.

1. Open ardhisasa.lands.go.ke and choose Register, then Individual. Companies and other bodies register separately under their own category, with the certificate of incorporation, the company PIN and the details of the person authorised to act.
2. Enter your identity number. The platform checks it against the national population register, so the name, date of birth and identity number must match your card exactly. A mismatch here is the commonest reason registration fails, and it is fixed at the registration bureau, not on Ardhisasa.
3. Verify your phone and e-mail. A code goes to each. The phone must be a Kenyan number, and it stays attached to the account, because every later search and transaction sends a code to it.
4. Set a password and log in. You are issued an Ardhisasa identification number. Keep it, because the registry and your advocate will use it to link transactions to you.

Foreign nationals and Kenyans without a Kenyan phone number are not able to complete this online. As at October 2026 their onboarding is manual and requires attendance at Ardhi House in Nairobi with original documents, or an advocate acting for them under a registered power of attorney. If you are abroad, the practical answer is the latter, and our article on buying land from abroad explains how it works.

Running the search

1. Get the parcel number right. Ardhisasa searches by parcel number, not by owner’s name and not by location. Ask the seller for the title and copy the number exactly as it appears, in the form Nairobi/Block 82/1234 or Kajiado/Kitengela/5678 for parcels on the newer registers, or the LR number for older titles. Many older LR titles in Nairobi were converted to Block numbers under the Ministry’s conversion programme, and if the number on the seller’s title has been converted the search must be made against the new number, which the conversion gazette notice sets out.
2. Log in and open Land Administration, then Search. Choose Official Search, enter the parcel number, and state the purpose of the search. The platform asks because the record of who searched a parcel and why is itself part of the register’s audit trail.
3. Pay the fee. The search fee is a few hundred shillings and is paid through the platform’s payment module by mobile money or card. Keep the receipt with the search.
4. Wait for the owner’s consent. This is the step which surprises people. A search on a parcel you do not own is notified to the registered proprietor through their own Ardhisasa account, and the result is released only when they approve it. The seller therefore has to be registered on the platform and has to say yes. A seller who is unable or unwilling to do either has told you something, and it is worth pausing on it before going further.
5. Download the result. Once consent is given the certified search appears in your account, usually within the day, and is downloaded as a PDF carrying the registry’s digital certification. It is dated, and its shelf life is short. We do not act on a search older than a week, and we always obtain a fresh one on the day of completion.

Reading the result

The search has three parts and each one answers a different question. The property section gives the parcel number, the registry, the approximate area and the tenure, freehold or leasehold and, for a lease, the term and its start date. Check every one of these against the title the seller showed you. A different area, a different tenure or a different registry means you are looking at a different parcel, however similar the number.

The proprietorship section names the registered owner, with the identity number and the date and nature of the entry by which they were registered. This is the name the seller must match, to the letter and to the identity number. If the entry is recent, or if it shows a transmission from a deceased owner or a transfer from a company, the root of title needs to be examined before you go on.

The encumbrances section is where the trouble lives. A charge means a bank or other lender holds security over the land and must discharge it, or consent, before any transfer registers. A caveat or caution means someone claims an interest and has asked the registry to stop dealings until they are heard. A restriction is the registrar’s own bar on dealings, often because of a dispute or an investigation. A court order speaks for itself. None of these is fatal to a purchase, and many are cleared as part of completion, but each one is a conversation to have before money moves, not after. And the absence of an entry is not the absence of a problem. A suit filed last month, unpaid land rates, unpaid land rent on a lease and a Land Control Board consent not yet obtained do not appear on a search at all.

When the title does not show

Three things produce a blank or an unavailable result. The first is a parcel on a registry which has not migrated, in which case the search is done on paper as described below. The second is a parcel on a migrated registry whose record has not been digitised or verified, which happens with older titles, with parcels whose files were incomplete at migration and with titles issued under the repealed statutes and not yet converted. The owner applies through the platform for the record to be verified and updated, with the original title in hand, and until the registry does so no online search is possible. The third is a flag on the record, where the registry has locked the parcel pending an investigation or a dispute, and the search is withheld deliberately.

Each of these is common and none of them proves fraud. But a seller who is unable to produce a parcel which searches, on a registry which has migrated, has a problem which is his to solve before the transaction, not yours to inherit after it. We do not exchange agreements against a title which is unable to be searched.

Counties still on paper

Where a registry has not migrated, the search is applied for at the county land registry in person or through an advocate. The application is lodged with a copy of the title, the fee is paid at the registry, and the search is signed by the registrar and returned in a few days depending on the registry’s workload. The result reads the same way as the online version and is examined the same way. The older eCitizen land search for Nairobi, which many people still look for, closed when Nairobi moved to Ardhisasa and no longer exists.

What a clean search does not tell you

A search showing the seller as proprietor with no encumbrances is the beginning of due diligence. It does not tell you whether the parcel on the map is the parcel you walked, whether the beacons are where the deed plan says, whether the land sits on a road reserve or a riparian strip, whether the person in front of you is the person on the register, whether the registration itself was proper, whether rates and rent are paid, or whether anyone has sued over the land. Those are the checks which follow, and they are the reason a search which costs a few hundred shillings does not replace an advocate. The search tells you where to start looking. It never tells you to stop.

Cost and time

The registry fee for a search is a few hundred shillings online or on paper. An Ardhisasa search returns within a day of the owner’s consent, a paper search within a few days. For clients buying through the firm the searches, including the confirmatory search at completion, are included in our conveyancing fee, which is 2 percent of the purchase price with a minimum of USD 1,000 and covers the full due diligence, a written report with a go or no go recommendation and the conveyance through to registration. All fees exclude statutory disbursements and VAT.

Questions we are asked every week

Is it possible to search land by the owner’s name on Ardhisasa?

No. The platform searches by parcel number only. If you have a name and no number, the number has to come from the seller, from an old title or from the registry index map with a surveyor’s help.

Is there a land search by SMS?

No. There is no SMS search service for the Kenyan land register. Anything offering one is not the registry.

How much does a land search cost in Kenya?

A few hundred shillings in registry fees, whether online or on paper. Anyone quoting thousands for a search is charging for something else.

How long does an Ardhisasa search take?

Usually within a day of the registered owner consenting. The consent is the variable, not the registry.

Is the eCitizen land search still available?

Not for Nairobi and the migrated counties. Those searches moved to Ardhisasa. Counties which have not migrated use the paper registry.

The seller says his title is not on Ardhisasa yet. Should I proceed?

Not until it is. The owner applies for the record to be verified and updated, and the search is done once it appears. A title which is unable to be searched is unable to be transferred either.

I live abroad. How do I do a search?

Through an advocate in Kenya acting under a power of attorney, since registration needs a Kenyan phone number and, for foreign nationals, attendance in person. We run the search and send you the certified result.

Next step

If you would rather we run the search and read it for you, send the parcel number and a photograph of the title by e-mail to peter@pmlaw.co.ke or WhatsApp through +254 714 644 080. We reply within one working day with the result, what it means and what should follow. Nothing is charged until you instruct us.

Peter Maina is a Partner of Peter Maina & Company Advocates, Hazina Towers, Nairobi. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya practising in conveyancing and real estate, corporate and commercial, and capital markets law, and acts for buyers in Kenya and abroad on land and property purchases.