Attorney General Dorcas Oduor speaking at the unveiling of the Government Critical Litigation and Loss Mitigation Review Committee at the State Law Office, Nairobi on May 29, 2025./HANDOUT
Attorney General Dorcas Oduor has launched the government’s Litigation and Loss Mitigation Review Committee, a strategic initiative aimed at addressing the country’s most pressing legal challenge—land and environmental disputes.
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony at the Executive Secretariat of the State Law Office in Nairobi on Thursday, Oduor described unresolved land disputes as a major obstacle to national development.
“This is one of the most urgent legal and development challenges facing Kenya today—unresolved land and environmental issues involving the government,” she said.
According to Oduor, disputes related to land and the environment not only delay infrastructure projects and disrupt economic activity but also threaten national security and investor confidence.
The growing backlog and complexity of these cases, she noted, continue to erode public trust in government systems.
“Today’s gathering marks the beginning of a collective and strategic response to a deeply entrenched issue—one that undermines our development goals and stalls both local and foreign investments,” she said.
Oduor highlighted how land and environmental cases have become a significant bottleneck in the justice system.
These disputes, she said, often lead to judicial congestion, displace communities, and compromise land tenure security—despite constitutional protections under Articles 40 and 60, which guarantee the right to property and promote equitable, sustainable, and efficient land use.
Citing recent audit data, the Attorney General revealed the scale of the crisis. Currently, the government is grappling with at least 10,581 environment-related cases. These include:
1,852 cases of land fraud
169 claims of private land appropriation by the government
315 cases of illegal acquisition of public land
128 compulsory acquisition cases
283 instances of double compensation
169 eviction cases
40 cases involving historical injustices
37 claims related to violations of the right to a clean environment
Of these, 10,501 cases are pending before the Environment and Land Court, 74 in the Court of Appeal, and six in the Supreme Court.
In response to this mounting crisis, Oduor said she convened a high-level consultative meeting in November 2024.
The session brought together key stakeholders from the ministries of Lands, Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, the National Land Commission, Internal Security, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
“The goal was to develop a joint strategy for the expedited resolution of these cases—whether through the court system or alternative dispute resolution mechanisms,” she said.
