President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled the final report of the nationwide airborne geophysical survey today, as well as inaugurating seven other ground-breaking projects that provide current and comprehensive geospatial data across the country.
The Joint National and Resource Mapping (JNAM) team developed the eight projects. The team is made up of young Kenyan professionals who are supervised by a security-related multi-agency.
President Kenyatta expressed optimism that the Joint National Mapping Projects will aid in the country’s development when he launched them at State House in Nairobi.
“As stewards of our natural resources, we have painstakingly pieced together an inventory of Kenya’s natural resources for the first time in our nation’s history.”
“The exercise’s innovations will accelerate job creation, revenue diversification, and industrial development in line with the Big 4 Agenda and Vision 2030,” President Kenyatta said.
He praised the talented young Kenyan professionals who collaborated to bring the projects to fruition as part of the multi-agency JNAM team.
“Thanks to your efforts, Kenya has become the first African country to conduct such a comprehensive survey without relying on outside assistance,” he said.
The JNAM team mapped out a wide range of resources, including base metals, coal, gemstones, geothermal spots, forest cover, water bodies, precious metals, and rare earth elements, according to President Kenyatta.
The output maps, he said, have already aided the Ministry of Education in mapping out schools across the country, the Ministry of Roads in identifying road reserves, and the Kenya Forestry Services in mapping out forest cover and identifying encroached areas.
The President noted that as part of the JNAM multi-agency project, the team developed a current cadaster for Nairobi County, which has aided in the identification and protection of public lands such as green spaces, health facilities, schools, roads, and road reserves.
“Overall, the national and county governments, the private sector, learning institutions, and other stakeholders are now better positioned to plan and implement their development programmes,” the President said, citing the updated data sets generated as part of the survey.
The Head of State also praised the JNAM team for creating a number of online applications, including Taifa Pay, which is used to collect most government revenues in Nairobi and has improved transparency and accountability in both government and private dealings.
“The Nairobi Revenue System has been extremely helpful in aligning the revenue collection systems of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and the Kenya Revenue Authority,” the President said.
The team also developed the ArdhiSasa digital platform, a land management system that improved the speed of land transactions, according to President Kenyatta.
“A single land transaction that used to take at least six months has now been reduced to 48 hours using Ardhi-Sasa.” Similarly, instead of taking one to three months to conduct a land search, this system will provide results in three to five minutes,” Kenyatta stated.
He urged all Kenyans to support the ArdhiSasa system, which has created a transparent, cost-effective, and efficient Land Information Management System.
The Kenya National Spatial Data Infrastructure was also developed by the JNAM team for spatial discovery, evaluation, and application at all levels of government, commercial and non-profit sectors, academia, and citizens in general.
The JNAM team has also created an online mining cadastre to improve mining dealership and rights processes, which will help the mining industry collect more revenue.
“Our land has been exploited for a long time by individuals who claim to be taking the soil to their laboratories. President Kenyatta stated, “With this innovation, we will be able to know what is being mined and by whom.”
The Head of State also urged county governments to embrace the innovations, claiming that the new project would transform the country by increasing transparency and reducing corruption.
CS for ICT, Innovation, and Youth The skills used to create the unique innovations, according to Joe Mucheru, are proof that Kenya is a technological leader.
“They (the young professionals) have done us proud and delivered beyond our expectations to you and the Kenyan people.” “These sleepless young Kenyans have delivered assets that will last a lifetime in record time, without compromising or complaining,” CS Mucheru said.
CS Mucheru thanked President Kenyatta for entrusting the team with one of the most important projects in the country, which will transform service delivery.