ArdhiSasa restored after LSK intervention over outage that hit land transactions

The ArdhiSasa platform has been restored after the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) raised concerns over its earlier outage.

In a statement on Wednesday, September 2, LSK said the platform has been unavailable since Tuesday with no timely official communication explaining the cause of the disruption, its extent or when services are expected to resume.

The society also noted that the disruption brought critical land transactions to a standstill, warning that this could expose advocates, clients and other stakeholders to financial losses.

Further, LSK said it had received numerous complaints from advocates whose conveyancing and land transactions had been affected by the outage.

“Searches, transfers, registrations, valuations and other critical processes have been brought to a standstill,” the society said, noting that the disruption was affecting advocates, their clients, financial institutions and other stakeholders.

However, the platform issued an update on Tuesday evening confirming the successful restoration.

A spot-check by Pulse also confirmed the restoration of the platform. Users can now log in and access different services.

ArdhiSasa is a central platform for land administration services, with its digital workflows covering processes including land searches, transfers, registrations, valuations and other transactions.

According to LSK, the disruption was significant because the migration of essential public services to a digital platform has, in some instances, substantially restricted manual alternatives.

The society said this creates a corresponding obligation for the State to ensure reliability, continuity of service, transparency and timely communication when the system becomes unavailable.

LSK also pointed to the contractual, statutory and commercial timelines governing conveyancing transactions, warning that delays could expose parties to penalties, additional costs, financing complications and disputes.

“Advocates cannot reasonably be expected to account to their clients for delays occasioned by a public system when the responsible authorities have themselves remained silent,” the Society said.

LSK had earlier called on the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning and the administrators of ArdhiSasa to issue an official communication explaining the nature and extent of the disruption.

It also demanded a clear indication of when full services were expected to resume, alongside regular public updates until the platform was fully restored.

The society further called for contingency measures be established for urgent and time-sensitive transactions so that parties whose transactions are subject to deadlines are not left without an alternative during system failures.

It further asked authorities to confirm that users would not suffer penalties, loss of priority, additional charges or other prejudice arising solely from the downtime.

The latest outage comes following previous technical disruptions affecting the platform.

ArdhiSasa was formally launched in April 2021 as a digital platform for land administration, with the system designed to support the digitisation of land records and transactions.

It initially operated on a pilot basis in Nairobi County before expanding to other areas. The platform has since been used for land registration, administration, physical planning, survey and mapping and valuation processes.

Previous periods of disruption and technical difficulties, include a system-wide outage in December 2024, technical problems reported in May 2025 and an infrastructure-related disruption in April 2026.

A scheduled maintenance period was also announced in May 2026 to upgrade infrastructure stability and system speed.

By March 2025, processing of land mutation forms for subdivisions and amalgamations through ArdhiSasa had become mandatory nationwide.

LSK said it supports the digitisation of land administration and recognises the potential of digital systems to improve efficiency, transparency and service delivery.

However, the society said essential digital public services must remain accountable when disruptions occur.

LSK also called for a clear and reliable incident-notification protocol covering both scheduled maintenance and unexpected downtime affecting ArdhiSasa.

It said users should not be left to speculate when a platform on which critical land transactions depend becomes inaccessible.