Concerted efforts can eliminate land sector corruption

Having noticed that the Land ministry is keen to address public complaints, let’s talk about corruption. It has become such a concern that it was the theme of the third bi-annual conference on land policy in Africa held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, under the African Land Policy Centre late last year.

Given experiences with land institutions locally, I attended to enrich discussions. But let me precede this with an anecdote that left me dumbstruck in this pleasant “land of Kings”. In our studies on land governance on the continent, we keep recounting that traditional authorities are critical institutions in the management of communal land. But to many of us, this has no practical feel since we hardly have any serious traditional authorities to learn from here.