Political meddling hindering land reforms

By F T ODHIAMBO

The National Land Commission (NLC) has unveiled a budget and a five-year plan to tackle historical land injustices and renewal of leases. This is in line with the National Land Policy, which is to guide the country towards efficient, sustainable and equitable use of land and its resources.

The programme will be guided by the philosophy that land is an economic resource to be managed productively, a significant resource which society should have equitable access to for livelihood; it is finite and should be utilised sustainably. It is also a cultural heritage to be conserved for future generations.

But the eagerly awaited reform programme faces serious challenges due to utterances made by leaders and in particular, the county top politicians and managers who have usurped the role of the NLC.

The multinationals leasing land and whose economic activity are export oriented and which generate foreign exchange to the national government, are threatened with eviction ostensibly, for the land to be handed over to local peasant farmers who mainly practise subsistence economy.

The reasoning is that there is a need to end economic dominance by foreigners by empowering local citizens. But those utterances and declarations are cheap political propaganda.

Numerous land problems exist and the magnitude depends on the era and land tenure practice. In pre-colonial Kenya, communities had their own land tenure systems based on their customary laws.

Land use

They were similar in that emphasis was laid on land use where every community member had rights to access and use land rather than land ownership. This enabled foreigners and people from neighbouring communities to access and use land within host communities.

Customary land tenure changed in colonial Kenya when natives became tenants at the will of the crown, thus interfering with the development of indigenous land tenure by encouraging European settlers to invest in Kenya. This led to the enactment of numerous laws, among them, the Crown Lands Ordinance (later Government Lands Act), which covered all land.

Europeans were granted the crown lands, which then came under individual land tenure, thus affecting the natives whose land the colonial administration would dispose of. 

As land alienation and economic policies favoured Europeans, tension mounted as Africans resented alienation of their land. This resulted in individual land ownership through the Swynerton Plan and agitation for independence.

 Even after independence, land problems still persist, with elites  taking  over  from the  European settlers and occupying most of the 20 per cent of  medium and high potential agricultural land.

Many of the former trust lands were also set apart mostly to benefit powerful individuals.

Thus a lot of the former government and trust land are private lands under leasehold or freehold titles and protected by the Constitution.

Land problems were among key catalysts for the enactment of the current constitution. We now have a National Land Commission and the National Land Policy.

The role of the commission is to administer and manage land in Kenya on behalf of citizens, national and county governments. It will also investigate and correct historical and current land injustices by restitution.

It will also do reparations where individuals or communities affected will be indemnified, and also do redistribution of land to facilitate equitable access to land.

Leaders and politicians should cordially engage multinationals to make counties benefit more from their social corporate responsibilities, improved rates, cess payment and job allocation in line with the constitution, rather than threats of forceful acquisition.

The writer is a survey and mapping professional at Maptech Consult