Rapidly changing city

I am back to Addis Ababa, post-Covid. The city, home to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), is referred to as Africa’s political capital in continental banter. One can understand. Like Nairobi, it has been rapidly expanding, and its population exploded. Estimates place this at about 5.5 million currently. The construction boom remains on, with mega commercial spaces, high-rise buildings and skyscrapers interrupting the city horizon. Bole International Airport, now said to be the largest capacity airport in Africa, continues to expand. Kenya should take lessons.

Diverse regional issues

In an East African Community forum held in August last year in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, Kenya reported to have started reviewing its 2009 national land policy. The forum had been organized by the EAC in partnership with the African Land Policy Center to provide EAC Partner States the opportunity to share lessons and best practices in land policy development, in keeping with the African Union Declaration on land. I provided technical support to the process and therefore had opportunity to appreciate the diversity of issues informing land policy review within the region.

Demolitions

We have previously seen demolitions happen in Nairobi’s Eastlands and Syokimau. Athi River Portland has now happened. Kenya must be careful not to normalise brutal evictions contrary to its own law, and international conventions. The associated loss of property and trauma are devastating, and usually difficult to rationalise. Watching the images has been emotionally draining. Efforts should be made to avoid recurrence, and minimize the adverse consequences. The lessons below are pertinent.

Judiciary

Multiple Claims

Athi River town, theatre to the current demolitions, serves as a good dormitory to many people working in Machakos, Kitengela and Nairobi. On matters land rights, it presents a nightmare. It is a microcosm of our complex tenure system, and overlapping claims. Indeed, in 2011, the then Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security, the late George Saitoti, established a Task Force to look into the irregular appropriation of public land, and the squatter problem therein. But the problem never got reined in, and the government may need to do more.

A recent story by the sister ‘Daily Nation’ newspaper revealed some humbling statistics on the historical land injustice claims made to the national land commission. Of the 3,743 cases received, 2,624 of them, a whopping 65%, are from Kenya’s Coast, with 2,024 of them coming from Kilifi County alone! Speaking during a Land Injustices Dialogue Session in Garsen, Tana River County, Commission Chairman Gershom Otachi indicated that the claims from Coast are comparatively weighty since they involve large communities, while those from other areas largely involve individuals, or much smaller groups. Good luck to the Commission as it decides on these cases.

Tenure certainty good for co-existence and investments

I have been watching spaces which are home to fragile land injustice claims by individuals and groups. Often, the resolve by the claimants is deep, cold and long-term. Any provocation, particularly by those prospecting for land, is met with hostility and force. Despite the pressure for land in Kenya, such spaces should be avoided. I have always advised investors to keep off such land till the pertinent issues are resolved. Once that’s done, then they may freely plough in capital for land or property. Such restraint is necessary where disputes, or confrontation over multiple claims to land are likely. Hence reason why there is need for urgency in adjudicating over historical land injustice claims already received, and those pending, be they by individuals or communities. Only then shall we have land tenure security in such zones. Certainty and security of tenure rights incentivizes the property market, paves way for long-term human settlement and provides an optimal environment for infrastructural development.