On land matters, many Kenyans have hitherto only known the Ministry of Lands and Land Control Boards. This will change. Through the National Land Policy and the constitution, Kenyans asked for new institutions. Because Kenyans were fed up with the inefficiency and corruption associated with the Ministry of Lands, they wanted change. But only time will tell how the change plays out, given the routine challenges that dog our land administration.

A recent survey by the Land Development and Governance Institute for instance revealed that many Kenyans remain rather apprehensive and pessimistic about the future. They observed that unless there’s an overhaul of staff in the existing institutions along with a total attitude change, the establishment of new institutions by itself may not achieve much. Harsh views, I must say, but perhaps true. The establishment of new institutions with new names and some new faces but centered on the same procedures, systems and culture can’t achieve much.

The respondents in the LDGI survey kept pointing out that we need a corporate culture in our land institutions and computerisation to ease and expedite land transactions. Computerisation would cut out brokers and minimize corruption in service delivery, they observed. Many were actually quite angry that in today’s Kenya where tax returns and purchase of goods can all be done on-line, one must abandon their duties to travel to land offices to purchase mundane things like searches or property maps. I too think that we shall only be able to turn around our land administration system after meaningful computerisation. No one, however well meaning, can provide excellent services while supported by millions of pieces of physical land records. For the land sector to successfully support livelihoods, business and our Vision 2030 flagship projects, Kenya’s land records and services must go digital. The Government and its development partners must urgently mobilize resources for this.

So which are the new land institutions? At the national level, we shall have the National Land Commission charged with the management of public land and a leaner Ministry of Lands. The leaner Ministry will however retain its traditional Departments of Planning and Survey. The allocation and management of public land will now be under the Land Commission. The functions of the old Department of Land Adjudication will also fall under the Land Commission. But the Ministry of Lands will continue to run land registries countrywide, something Kenyans polled in the LDGI survey weren’t happy with. They suggested that the registries be under the Land Commission. Their frustrations with land registries informed this strong view.

There are also new courts which will hear disputes relating to the environment and land use. The Environment and Land courts will also hear matters on titles to land and occupation of land. Judges to these courts were appointed recently. But for Kenya’s numerous land disputes spread over the forty seven counties, the judges recently appointed are far too few. We shall need many more if Kenyans are to access justice on land matters effectively.

The County organs of the Land Commission, the County Land Management Boards, will process applications for land allocation, change of user and extension of user to public land. They will also process applications for renewal of leases and subdivisions to public land. But transactions to agricultural land will need to obtain the consent of the respective Land Control Boards since the Land control Act remains in force. Development applications on all categories of land will also need the approval of the District Physical Planning Liaison Committees under the Physical Planning Act, also still in force.