ALIO: Counties can no longer be ignored in affordable housing project

The affordable housing programme remains one of Kenya’s most ambitious national development initiatives. Its promise—modern housing, job creation and improved living standards—is compelling. Yet in the Northern Frontier counties, this promise is at risk of collapsing under the weight of procedural violations, legal shortcuts and a worrying disregard for established land governance laws. 

In Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Lamu, Isiolo, Marsabit and Turkana, the land tenure system is overwhelmingly community land, held in common by clans and regulated under the Community Land Act, 2016. Any attempt to develop large-scale housing without following the due process prescribed by this law is not merely irregular—it is illegal.