Cabinet approves new national land policy

The Cabinet on Thursday approved the National Land Policy that seeks to introduce far-reaching reforms, paving the way for the permanent resolution of Kenya’s perennial land problems.

Approval of the policy heralds massive changes in land ownership, a move likely to trigger stiff opposition from big land owners.

The Kofi Annan-led team that mediated the aftermath of the disputed 2007 election identified land reform as one of the critical issues that the coalition government needed to address urgently to avoid a recurrence of violence.

The new policy outlines measures that would drastically change land ownership laws in Kenya.

Parliament, which is set to take a three week break, must approve the Sessional Paper before further progress on the policy is made.

“The policy provides a platform for addressing issues such as access to land, land use planning, environmental degradation, land conflicts and injustices, unplanned proliferation of informal settlements and land information management,” said a statement from the Presidential Press Service.

Radical recommendations
“This is the strongest signal that the problem of land can finally be addressed, bringing sanity to the management and ownership of land,” said Ibrahim Mwathane, former chairman of the Institute of Surveyors of Kenya.

“Addressing these problems will stabilise the economy and curb the deadly conflicts that have erupted in the past,” added Mwathane.

The recommendations that have in the past triggered opposition include those that would see thousands of acres of land held under leases in excess of 99 years revert to the State.

The policy also seeks to bar non-citizens from having absolute ownership over land, proposing instead, that they own land under a leasehold system.

This latter proposal has been met with resistance by a number of Western countries whose citizens hold extensive land interests in sections of the Rift Valley, Central, Eastern and Coast provinces.

Lands minister James Orengo said the policy emphasises control in use of and access to land, noting that land policies was directly linked to food security and production.

Resettling the landless
The new land policy will allow Kenyans to lease land in all sizes and for varying terms through land rental markets.

It will also grant the government power to reclaim grabbed public land, impose taxes on idle land, and reduce all leaseholds to 99 years.

These measures are expected to release land to resettle the landless.Currently, there are 67 statutes that affect land ownership and use, with 20 specifically dealing with land issues.