Scramble for Turkana land

By Jacqueline Kandagor

In Turkana County, like in most pastoralist areas in the country, land is owned communally.

In this set up, communal land ownership is bestowed upon county councils under the Trust Land Act (Cap 288). This form of ownership ensures equitable distribution of resources for the community members who principally need the land for grazing their animals.

The members of the community don’t have documents for individual parcels of land except in urban areas where they are given allotment letters as proof that they are occupying the land legitimately.

The procedure for getting an allotment letter starts with a visit to the municipal council where the clerk in turn directs the individual to the area councillor who will accompany the person to the area that is yet to be occupied.

This seemingly easy process to many is still a complex and convoluted procedure to many Turkana residents.

 Ever since President Kibaki announced the discovery of oil deposits at Nakukulas in Turkana South, there have been major concerns on how to ensure that the locals don’t lose out.

The county council has been equivocal that locals won’t lose their land over the oil discovery, but this is doing little to assure residents who have come to take Government pronouncements with a pinch of salt.

“The locals’ interests are taken care of by the Turkana County Council, the custodian of the land on behalf of the community,” assures Councillor Gabriel Lokoroi.

However, speculators have been falling over each other as they position themselves to get a piece of Turkana land, or shall we say a drop of the new found commodity?

Speculators have been buying land in urban areas and shopping centres with the intention of selling the same later at inflated prices.

“Outsiders are buying land through locals who agree to deal on condition that they get a commission,” explains Christopher Long’or, a resident of Lokichar, the urban centre near Ngamia I.

Much uncertainity

“We do acknowledge that there are many loopholes but we assure the people that it is not that easy for an outsider to take their land from them,” assures Paul Ekeno, a member of the civil society amid the uncertainties surrounding land transactions in Turkana.

There have been allegations of local people swindling unsuspicious outsiders that they can acquire land on their behalf.

“An outsider can only acquire land within urban areas from locals who have allotment letters on ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ basis at prevailing market rates,” adds Ekeno.

 “There is no individual security on land ownership hence discouraging people from investing in real estate,” explains James Kimani, a businessman who has been in Lodwar for the past 30 years.

“It is difficult to acquire loans for business and other development projects,” agrees John Lokuruka, a native of Lodwar town.

Until recently, there were few land disputes among community members, but this phenomenon is now commonplace especially in urban areas. Often, there are cases of families that migrate to other regions only to return and find other people have taken over their land.

“The disputes mostly arise when the municipal council ejects the locals so as to allocate the land to someone who has already paid the money for allotment letters,” explains Moses Kai, the chief of Nakalale Location in Turkana West District.

Repeatedly, the people evicted are locals who occupy prime pieces of land on the outskirts of most urban areas like Lodwar, Kalokol, Lokichar and Kakuma.

Locals’ Ignorance

“The raia (locals) are not aware of the existence of an application letter given upon payment of a small application fee as they await the allotment and the subsequent payment of the allotment fee that is often too high for them,” explains chief Kai.

However, things could be streamlined soon with devolution, according to local leaders.

“With the arrival of the county government next year, the mandate of the county council will end and land ownership issues will have been streamlined,” maintains Councillor  Lokoroi.

“In Lodwar town, there are people who have resided in their current premises for more than half a century with only allotment letters issued by the county council as proof of ownership,” explains Moses Napeto, an area resident.

In the meantime, locals constructing permanent homes seem not to be deterred by this lack of title deeds. Lodwar town has many faces depending on the side one would be looking at.

While the town centre lacks in planning and has slum-like dwellings, some parts are well planned with access roads and one would be forgiven for thinking that he or she is no longer in Turkana County.

Unlike in the traditional Turkana society where it is the woman’s responsibility to build houses, for the educated Turkana man, the construction of a house is solely his responsibility.

Lifestyle upkeep

 Most men who work away from home construct houses in which they barely spend two months per year because for them, it is prestigious to come home and have a life as comfortable as that in the urban areas.

“When a man dies, he has to be buried in his own compound and there must be a house,” explains James Ekaal, a resident of Lodwar.

While sand is in abundance in this semi-desert region — as it’s freely scooped from the many dry riverbeds — the cost of constructing houses in the region is still high compared to most parts of Kenya. Transportation of sand is expensive due to the poor state of the roads and the high  taxes levied by the county council.

A lawyer who requested to remain anonymous, told Home & Away that his house cost him more than Sh7 million. He is of the opinion that the house could have cost less had it not been for the transportation of materials from Kitale, the nearest town from Lodwar.

During the colonial period and most of first President Jomo Kenyatta’s regime, Turkana County, then a district, was a closed district with the main access route leaving Kitale through Uganda and re-entering the county through the Amudat border.

It was not until the completion of the Kitale-Lodwar highway that serious construction began and this probably explains the underdevelopment of real estate in the region.