29March2024

LAND REFORMS IN KENYA AND AROUND AFRICA

This blog focuses on issues of land reforms in Kenya and around Africa and related matters

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Mwathane

Mr Ibrahim Mwathane is a consultant in Surveying and Land Information Management and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Surveying and Photogrammetry from the University of Nairobi and a Masters degree in Cadastre and Land Information Management from the Polytechnic of East London.
 
Mr Mwathane has had extensive experience in the public sector where he served for 13 years as a field surveyor, quality control officer and a district and provincial office manager. While in the private sector, Mr Mwathane has been involved in consultancy work in surveying and land reform. He has provided advocacy and technical support to Kenya’s land policy formulation process and the continental land policy process.
 
Mr Mwathane has also served as the Chairman of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK). During his tenure, he introduced ISK to national advocacy on matters relating to land reforms and contemporary land issues in the country.
He is the immediate past chair of the KEPSA Land Sector Board, a Director with the Land Development and Governance Institute(see www.ldgi.co.ke/www.ldgi.org) and the Principal Consultant of Landscape Land Surveyors & Consultants, Nairobi, Kenya.
 
Mr Mwathane has been twice decorated with Head of State Commendation awards, first in the year 2005 for introducing reforms that greatly influenced the development of the surveying profession in Kenya then in the year 2009 for his efforts to improve service delivery in the land sector in Kenya and in helping in the formulation of the national land policy.

Female Governors

The new government, at national and county level, is now in place. Congratulations to the office holders. Of the 47 County governors, seven, just about 15 per cent, are women. My colleagues from Rwanda remind me that, comparatively, this is still dismal. They brag of a better record. But for a country that started with an all male cast after the 2013 elections, this new record motivates.

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Market Protocol

EAC Partner States have begun to share lessons and best practices in land policy development. Each will henceforth be able to share considered best practices in land policy formulation, implementation and review. This regional sharing will be done within the realm of Article 15 of the EACMarket Protocol which provides that access to, and use of land and premises, shall be governed by national policies and laws of individual Partner States. States will therefore be at liberty to learn from each other, and, where they identify lessons applicable to their jurisdictions, make bilateral arrangements to benchmark, learn and borrow accordingly.

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New government

Polling for Kenya’s fifth President and members of the 13th parliament, along with the third cohort of County Governors and County Assembly members, will happen next week Tuesday 9th August. I appeal for efficient and peaceful voting, and, subsequently, thorough, accurate and transparent tallying of the vote. I am just back from an engagement with the East African Community in Dar es Salaam and I could easily tell that East Africa, and indeed Africa, has eyes on Kenya. Let’s therefore demonstrate that our democracy has come of age, and provide those watching us with a good comparative benchmark and hope.

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Time bound Review of Grants of Public Land

We must thank the Member of Parliament for Kilifi North, Hon Owen Yaa Baya for intervening on a matter that remains outstanding. This column highlighted that the National Land Commission Act provides for the review of grants and dispositions of public land to establish their propriety and legality but only within the first five years of commencement of the Act. The NLC Act commenced in April 2012. Therefore, this timeline expired from May 2017. Indeed, any further attempts by the NLC to address related matters have met with legal challenges. So while the country beats up the Commission for not doing more to recover irregularly allocated public land, its hands remain tied by this lacuna in the law. For this reason, any repossession efforts by the NLC will suffer adverse consequences until this matter of timeline is addressed.

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International attention

Loliondo division, in the Ngorongoro District of Northern Tanzania, has been in the news lately. There’s been a flurry of protest notes and statements released on social media, email, local and international news outlets. The content developed on Loliondo within less than two weeks is amazing. It continues.

Non-state institutions, particularly Civil Society Organisations, have moved with speed to draw international attention to the matter. The government of the United Republic of Tanzania was reported to be evicting the Maasai of Loliondo from 1500 square kilometers, just about 370,000 acres, of their ancestral land in disregard of their rights. This is aimed at making way for a game reserve within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is said to be part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. Allegedly, an international investor is interested in developing safari tourism within the subject site.

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