Kenya wants to crack down on illegal land grabbing using blockchain software. Relevant plans were announced by Information Minister Joseph Mucheru in a BBC report this week. The limping cadastral system is one of the largest construction sites in the emerging country. In addition to Kenya, more and more African countries and companies are using blockchain solutions to fight their own problems. Ethiopia also wants to secure the coffee distribution chain using Blockchain software, as announced this week.

Actually, the East African country is already considered an emerging technology giant, even boasts as “Silicon Savannah”. In cadastre Kenya lags behind. The result is a fate that is shared by many developing countries worldwide. Corruption and bribes help to increase land, to claim farmland and to drive people out of their homes. Property deeds that can be bought in back rooms are considered worthless.

This should finally be over. As the BBC reports this week, Kenyan Information Minister Joseph Mucheru wants to put an end to illegal land grabbing and stop corruption. The aim is to help blockchain technology. According to his plans, all land register directories in the country could be stored on a blockchain in the future.

Such a blockchain platform could offer “security, efficiency, and transparency,” countering Kenyans frustration with forged and subsequently changed documents, Mucheru said.

He is considered a great advocate of new technologies. Contrary to the official attitude of the Kenyan central bank Mucheru advocates the bitcoin trade and held until the beginning of the year shares of the start-up Bitpensa . In front of his cabinet post, he headed the sub-Saharan space office of Internet giant Google.

Cadastral system is the most common field of application in public administration

Kenya, whose main industry is still agriculture, has been groaning for years under corruption in land surveying. Again and again there are protracted protests in the country. In 2015, for example, the news pictures in the capital Nairobi demonstrating elementary school students went around the world. They had demonstrated for the preservation of a playground that was to be sold to a hotel. Allegedly, the school did not have any valid title deeds. The police stopped the demonstration with tear gas.

Specific details of how such images should now be prevented and which blockchain service provider Kenya should support in the project are currently unknown. However, a possible role model is represented by the food distribution company Twiga Foods . The Kenyan company entered into a cooperation agreement with IBM in April and intends to grant small-goods sales in the future with the help of Blockchain loans.

As a further godfather, the globally sprouting Blockchain pilots could also be involved in land surveying. In addition to the Swedish land registry Lantmäteriet, Georgia, or the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is currently maintaining projects. Blockchain pioneer Estonia , for example, has been running its cadastral system for years using distributed ledger software.

Blockchain in Africa on the rise

Meanwhile, the blockchain in Africa is more and more on the rise. Instead of land surveying, more and more African companies and states are using Blockchain software to secure their supply chains. As reported this week, Ethiopia wants to hedge the distribution of its trading gold coffee with the technology. With the aid of the software service provider IOHK , the responsible ministry of technology wants to prevent corruption and leaks in cultivation and shipping.

The blockchain within its supply chains also wants to take advantage of the diamond giant De Beers . So the South Africans want to ensure the origin of their gemstone and thus block so-called blood diamonds market access.

@cryptomarks