The present public land tenure management system in Kenya is fragmented, uncoordinated and non-transparent. The public land tenure as embodied in the Government Lands Act, Cap 280 of the Laws of Kenya lacks a coherent information system and is bedeviled by a lack of clarity in the roles, responsibilities and policies of different institutions in its administration, planning and disposal. Thus, there is a need for a set of national norms and standards to ensure efficient and effective use of public land as an asset in support of land reform.

For a long time the issue of land and related problems has been debated mostly by academicians, politicians and professionals. Although the problem has remained more or less one of the most talked of in Kenya, the public has very often been left out of the debate. Again mostly the debate has been dominated more by complaining about either the lack of policy or the bad land policies and laws and the failure by successive governments to correct those problems.

The figures of public resources estimated to have been channeled into private pockets are so high one hopes, obviously against hope, that they would turn out to be typographical errors. The figures of public resources estimated to have been channeled into private pockets are so high one hopes, obviously against hope, that they would turn out to be typographical errors.

This analysis and recommendations stem from USAID/Kenya’s request for an assessment of Kenya’s draft National Land Policy (dNLP).4 It was conducted under the global task order: Property Rights and Resource Governance Program, a mechanism designed and supervised by USAID-EGAT’s Land Resources Management Team under the Office of Natural Resources Management.

The Role Of Wetlands In Poverty Reduction- Extreme poverty among rural poor people living around wetlands remains a daily reality for more than 56% of Kenya’s population, who subsist on less than one dollar a day. Seventy percent of extremely poor households, a majority of who live in rural areas where hunger and poverty prevails, are now being caught up in a new web of lack of access to wetlands as safety-net during hard times due to appropriation of wetlands by private developers.

The recently released report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Land Law System of Kenya has sparked varying reactions from Kenyans of all walks of life. While some complain that the Commission did not complete its task per all its terms of reference, the land gurus are thrilled by the fact that the report makes many far reaching recommendations on the principles of formulating a National Land Policy Framework and the Constitutional Framework for Land Administration and Management.

For a long time sub-Saharan Africa has been considered to have abundant and underutilized land than any other continent. On the contrary, recent studies show that many rural Africans live in increasingly densely populated areas where all arable land is allocated or under cultivation. This has led to a long-term decline in farm size and reduced fallows.

The report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal/Irregular Allocation of Public Land is finally out! Popularly known as the ‘Ndung’u’ Report, the publication of this three-volume document is important to the Kenya Land Alliance for two major reasons. Firstly, the appointment of the Coordinator of the Kenya Land Alliance to the Commission marked a threshold in the relations between KLA and the Government of Kenya.

Alpine pastures and meadows are agroecosystems of biological, cultural-historical, and economic importance that are undergoing profound imbalances and which are in a rapid decline due to changes in management and/or abandonment. The European Union is making efforts to protect this heritage and resource. However, the dialog among the different professionals in charge of studying and managing these agroecosystems needs to be as easy and comprehensible as possible for grasslands conservation/restoration actions to be successful.

This infographic builds on the Regional Dialogue on Women’s Inclusion in Landscape Management,
organized by WOCAN in partnership with RECOFTC and The Forests Dialogue, 7-9 Oct. 2014, Thailand

The report’s findings suggest that policies and programmes of governments and the development partners could include a stronger focus on the development of peri-urban areas and smaller cities and towns. The rapid pace of change in peri-urban areas throws into relief any underlying issues in land tenure arrangements, land administration/planning and governance, such as overlapping mandates, conflicts in tenure systems, weak land administration/planning capacity and wider political economy issues that can block positive reforms.

Arid and semi-arid biomes support valuable ecosystems with livelihoods linked to rain-fed agriculture and pastoralism and have unique biodiversity and cultural values. However, desertification is land degradation in dry-lands that leads to loss of productivity and ecosystem services. Climate change is expected to increase arid biomes and stress on dry-lands due to increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation that will impact vegetation, livestock and people.