• This power to allocate secretly is coveted and pundits observe that it perhaps underlies the wars between the Lands Ministry and the Land Commission.
• The Land Act provides for the allocation of public land by the Commission on behalf of the national and county governments by way of public auction to the highest bidder at prevailing market values, subject to, or not less, than the reserved price.

One strategy used in the past to allocate public land preferentially was secrecy. That’s why surveyors, planners, land officers and politicians became influential and powerful during the land-grab regime.

Some few planners and surveyors had the much needed information on vacant plots. Land officers in the Ministry of Lands had powers to prepare letters of allocation. They also were privy to information on expiring leases.

Politicians, particularly those close to the Commissioner of Lands, the Lands minister or the President, were critical players since they could influence land allocation to friends and cronies.

So while the country moved on with routine business, this alliance was busy identifying vacant plots and expiring leases for allocation. They made big, quick wealth; not through hard work or creative invention but from preying on public land.

The country only woke up to these realities when the new land lords, or those they’d sold to, appeared in schools, forests, or road reserves or with title deeds ready to occupy the land.

This power to allocate secretly is coveted and pundits observe that it perhaps underlies the wars between the Lands Ministry and the Land Commission. Perhaps each of them quietly craves to enjoy the immense powers.

But unless Kenyans and land sector stakeholders go into a big slumber, the power of preferential allocations was dealt a big blow by the new Land Act.

Yes, the national and county governments, in whom various categories of public land are vested, shall continue to have a role in the allocation of public land.

Indeed, the Land Commission too has a big role in the allocation and management of such land. But each of these institutions won’t exclusively determine who should be allocated public land without risking censure and possible prosecution for breach of the law.

This is why officers in the Ministry of Lands and the Land Commission need not view themselves as power wielders any more, and why they shouldn’t even fight. They should perhaps be more worried that they could undermine their career progression and suffer prosecution should they breach the law.

PUBLIC AUCTION

The Land Act provides for the allocation of public land by the Commission on behalf of the national and county governments by way of public auction to the highest bidder at prevailing market values, subject to, or not less, than the reserved price.

It also provides for the allocation of public land through public notice of tenders as may be prescribed or through the public drawing of lots. But the land identified for allocation must neither be subject to erosion, flooding and earth slides nor waterlogged. It shouldn’t also be a forest, wildlife or any other such reserves nor lie along watersheds and rivers.

Land to be allocated must also not be reserved for strategic public uses like security, education or research. Land of exceptional national cultural or historical value cannot be allocated for private use either.

The new law further requires that public land shall not be allocated unless it has been planned, surveyed and serviced, and that guidelines for its development must be issued before allocation.

Such allocated land shall not be sold, disposed of, sub-let or sub-divided unless it has first been developed for the purpose for which it was initially allocated. If the conditions of lease are breached, such land shall automatically revert to the national or county government.

Applicants for allocation of public land must internalise these fundamental requirements.

To ensure transparency, the new law requires the Land Commission to publish or send a 30-day notice informing the public and other interested parties of the intention to allocate public land. The notice is what officials may try to bypass.

The various provisions in sections 13 to 16 of the new law have made it particularly difficult for public officials to allocate land secretly and preferentially.

While specific procedures and regulations to operate the requirements are yet to be developed, it must be borne in mind that the new law became applicable on May 2, 2012, hence its letter and spirit are in force.

This is why stakeholders have kept informing the Land Commission and the ministry that recent allegations regarding secret allocation of public land and the reallocation of expired leases, if true, attracts censure and possible prosecution.

Relentless vigilance on this issue must be maintained.

Mr Mwathane is a consultant in surveying and land information management ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Opinion Contribution, Daily Nation Monday 28th July, 2014