• Lands ministry has urged National Assembly to enact legislation for an independent commission to deal with inter-county conflicts.
•It says county and extra-county boundary disputes have over the years been an impediment to registration of community lands and investment.
Image: ELIUD WAITHAKA
The Ministry of Lands has urged the National Assembly to enact legislation creating an independent commission to deal with inter-county boundary conflicts.
It said these disputes over the years have obstructed registration of community land, which would mean investment and economic development.
Lands CAS Mburi Muiru on Tuesday said the government aims at converting 347 group ranches into community lands in 12 counties in three years.
"Members of Parliament are mandated to enact some legislation based on Chapter 188 of the Constitution. We are supposed to have an independent commission dealing with inter-county boundary disputes," Mburi said during the ongoing National Community Land summit in Nanyuki town.
He said only 12 counties have submitted inventories of their unregistered community lands in readiness for the registration process as enshrined in the law.
The ministry's strategic plan is to have all community lands registered by 2024, but only 12 out of 24 counties have shown commitment in the last five years.
Mburi accused some counties of being an impediment to implementation of the Act.
"There are some counties that have been dragging out this process of community land registration. Some even demand a single title deed for the entire county. Counties should not be too rigid on this issue so that we ease this work," he said.
Community representatives from 24 counties with communally owned lands are converging in Nanyuki to address hurdles encountered in registering their land in compliance with the Community Land Act 2016.
Five years after the Act came into force, only 10 community groups have transited to community land, with more than half of these being from Laikipia county.
Huge chunks of lands mainly in Northern Kenya are still held in trust by the county governments and communities have little influence on the management of this natural resource.
The three-day summit is organised by the community with support from the nonprofit organisation, Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation (Impact), and the National Land Commission.
Deliberations are focusing on the hurdles that have caused the process to stagnate to the detriment of communities. They stand to gain immensely once they become legal owners of the lands, they have occupied for decades but without legal documents.
Among the benefits from transiting from trust land to community land are investment opportunities and compensation from the government for mega projects such as the LAPSSET. It has been designed to traverse the Coast, Northeastern, Eastern and Rift Valley regions where the land is held in trust by the county governments.
Some stumbling blocks in the community land registration process include lack of resources, ethnic polarisation, lack of political goodwill, failure to have a clear distinction between community and public land and vested interests by senior county government officials.
“Until the community land is registered with the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, it remains trust land and any investment or compensation is negotiated by the county governments.
"By registering and getting a title deed, the community becomes the legal owners and takes full control,” lawyer Timothy Larpei, an expert on community land, said on Tuesday.
Larpei cited the example of Il Ngwesi Community Land in Laikipia North. A title deed was obtained in 2019 and it has have already entered into a leasing agreement with an investor to put up a multi-million project on 200ha (494 acres)
Chairman of Il Ngwesi Community Land Kip Ole Polos said the foreign investor is putting up a 40-bed eco-tourist lodge on part of the 8,600ha (21,251 acres) and will be paying the community Sh25 million annually in conservancy and bed-night fee.
“We spent about Sh5 million during the registration process, part of which was contributed by the 1,670 group members and development partners. Though the registration process is costly, it comes with immense benefits since in our case the leasing agreement is for 50 years from 2019,” Ole Polos said.
(Edited by V. Graham)