Recurrent, hyped politics over land

There’s been an established pattern where politicians, aspiring or in office, treat us to loud pre-election land politics. Sadly, some of this drives violence. Yet most is hype and opportunism aimed at attracting votes. But it’s time Kenyans shunned this manipulation and demanded accountability. Kenya now has adequate law and institutions to resolve her issues. These, and not mere rhetoric, are our best bet to forwards. They provide a bankable pathway to the predictable and progressive use of our land for shelter, business and food production. But how?

There’s been very genuine grievances on land from our past. No land policy, inappropriate constitution and laws, corrupt land institutions and poor access to justice. But following a combination of participatory public processes undertaken within the last three decades, Kenya stands differently today. It should be able to resolve most of the pertinent land issues without recourse to toxic politics or violence. We’ve had the benefit of processed information and recommendations from the constitutional review process, the Njonjo Commission, the Ndung’u Commission and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission aka TJRC.

Adequate legal and institutional mechanisms

We now have a national land policy and a progressive post-independence constitution which anchors a comprehensive chapter on land. We subsequently enacted several land laws, all informed by the policy and the constitution. What we mustn’t forget is that besides benefitting from direct public inputs, our land policy was informed by the constitutional review process, the Njonjo and Ndung’u reports. And that the chapter on land in our constitution was informed by the land policy.

It’s the above that informed our current legal and institutional dispensation. The recommendations in the constitutional review process report, Njonjo and Ndung’u reports informed the creation of an independent national land commission. This was anchored in the land policy and constitution. This commission was given powers to review and repossess, where applicable, all illegally and irregularly allocated public land. It was also given the mandate to receive, investigate and recommend redress for all claims presented on historical land injustices. This was informed by, among others, recommendations in the TJRC report. New Environment and Land Courts were created following proposals in the policy and constitution to create specialized courts to expedite justice.

New land laws, particularly the Land Act, the National Land Commission Act, the Land Laws (Amendment) Act, the Community Land Act, the Land Registration Act and the Environment and Land Court Act, enacted between 2011 and 2016, provided enabling offices and mechanisms for the realization of the aspirations previously expressed by Kenyans. The laws therefore enable this country to address historical land injustices, and the irregular allocation of public land which particularly fueled high-octane political rhetoric in the past.

No need for toxic politics, or land-related violence

One would therefore expect the sitting and aspiring political leaders to familiarize with the details of our existing laws, and help to improve them. For instance, the Commission’s mandate to review grants to previously allocated public land, which was for a period of five years from May 2012, expired in May 2017. Applications to have parliament extend this timeline have been unsuccessful. The timeline for receiving and investigating historical land injustices, which was five years from 21st September 2016, expires on 21^st of this month. One would therefore expect leaders with sincere concerns to root for extensions. The Environment and Land Courts haven’t expedited justice to land cases, and boundary disputes queued in land registries remain in thousands. The implementation of the Community Land Act has remained slow for lack of adequate technical capacity and financial resources.

Shun and punish insincere politicians

One can therefore appreciate that the required interventions are legal and institutional, or call for enhanced resourcing. Politicians should interrogate the omissions and resource gaps, and propose solutions. We therefore shouldn’t be treated to polarizing land politics in the 2022 campaigns. Politicians doing so would be insincere, really devious, and should be ignored and punished.

Dated: 22^nd September, 2021