2021-05-17

Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) partnered with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to do a budgetary analysis of public entities that managing land and natural resources functions in the county. More specifically, the budgetary allocations to the following Public Institutions the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning (MoLPP) , The  National Land Commission (NLC), the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining and the Ministry of Environmental and Forestry. 
This analysis has brought in focus the public resourcing of the Community Land Registration process which was rolled out by the Government back in 2018. 
Here is the the report:

2021-05-17

With the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 (CoK 2010), land was classified into public, private and community lands, occasioning the need for clear guidelines on acquisition of public land acquisition within the community land while appreciating the provision of the Community Land Act, 2016.
It is against this background that the National Land Commission (NLC) and KLA jointly developed a guide to give insights on requisite procedures

2021-10-22

Kenya Land Alliance in the past few months have reflected on the place of Alternative Justice Systems in advancing women and girl's rights, the policy brief below expounds on the matter,

2021-10-26

This policy brief is based on a two-day consultative workshop convened by the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA), August 19-20, 2021, at the Boma Inn, Eldoret. It draws its findings and recommendations from the contributions by delegates from Government (National and County), academia, members of the public, civil society organizations (CSOs), and other non-state actors (NSAs). While the forum was by no means exhaustive on the emotive subject of land and elections in Kenya, the delegates present were unanimous that it provided a welcome entry point on starting a public conversation on the touchy topic of land and elections. The recommendations are captured in the last section of the report, which will form the rationale for the organizers to venture into more partnerships by way of funding through proposal writing

2021-11-11

Kenya is endowed with a variety of minerals that include Gold, Copper, soda ash, fluorspar, titanium, manganese, iron ore, gypsum, diatomite, chromite, limestone, and silica sand among others⁸. There is a fair documentation of Kenya’s commercial mining and mineral processing operations. Mining is the industry and activities connected with getting valuable or useful minerals from the ground⁹. The mining sector in Kenya contributes about 0.4% of the country’s GDP.

Though mining activity has been present in the country for over 50 years, productivity has remained low. The scale of operations has been limited with only two projects - soda ash and mineral sands - comprising a large part of productive output by revenue. Exploration activity has also been limited even though geological surveys demonstrate a sizeable mineral potential¹⁰. For example, three of the four priciest gems in the world have been found in Kenya. This includes emeralds, sapphire, and ruby in Baringo and West Pokot among others¹¹.

2025-02-17

Women In Artisanal Mining In Kenya: Economic Challenges And Opportunities, a study of Kakamega, Kwale, Migori, Turkana and West Pokot Counties.

Kenya is endowed with a variety of minerals that include Gold, Copper, soda ash, fluorspar, titanium, manganese, iron ore, gypsum, diatomite, chromite, limestone, and silica sand among others. Though mining has been practiced in the country for over 50 years, productivity has remained low. The mining sector contributes only about 0.4% of the country’s GDP. The types of mining operations include large-scale, small-scale and Artisanal Mining (ASM).

The ASM sector is estimated to directly employ approximately 140,000 people (Ollett, 2013) and is undertaken in Migori, Narok, Siaya, Vihiga, Kakamega, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Turkana, Laikipia, Tharaka Nithi, Kitui, Machakos, Taita Taveta and Kwale. As in the rest of the world, the ASM sector in Kenya will continue to grow.

The Extractives Hub (2020) attributes this trend to poverty, with ASM being widely recognized as a poverty-driven activity, capable of alleviating economic hardship and promoting wealth creation in largely rural communities. However, while ASM provides an income and potential route out of poverty, it can also keep women miners and their families trapped in poverty due to various challenges.

2025-04-01

The Ardhi Caucus seeks to offer solutions to the challenges by fostering a united front and harnessing resources through a well-coordinat- ed approach. The Caucus, which involves both

state and non-state actors seeks to leverage oneach other’s technical expertise, capacities and
strengths towards expediting the actualization of gender transformative, community respon-
sive and inclusive land tenure security. Through the Caucus community, voices in different
spaces, from county to national levels will be amplified.

Objectives of the Caucus include:

• To become thought leaders on matters of land tenure by collectively developing evi-
dence-based action research-studies, policy, legal and administrative frameworks and
proposals to enhance land tenure security.

• To bolster the capacities of the different stakeholders towards the effective realization of tenure security.

• To mobilise resources towards the achievement of gender transformative land tenure security.

• To align climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies to the current trends/ discourse that promote land tenure security.

• To establish remedy mechanisms towards the facilitation of land tenure security in different contexts.

2025-04-11

There is a strong positive correlation between women’s secure land rights and their well-being. Land is a fundamentally critical resource for women’s survival and achievement of sustainable development. It is a source of livelihood, thereby overwhelmingly cementing women’s critical space in food production especially provision of labour in agriculture.

In Kenya, land remains a major source of disparity and conflict among many social groups and its access, us e and control are at the heart of the National Land Policy 2009, the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and subsequent legislations including the Land Act 2012 as well as Community Land Act 2016. Truly, Kenya has made positive progress in realizing gender agenda including the promotion and embedment of gender equality and non-discrimination in policies, laws, strategies and action plans.

Evidently, non-discrimination stands out as a critical value and principle in Article 10 of the Constitution that underpins socio-economic and political development as well as governance spheres in the Republic. Despite these constitutional and legal requirements relating to inclusion of women and other marginalized groups in governance, there is a disconnect between policy and practice, giving rise to un-intended misnomer regarding the nexus between de facto and de jure gender equality.

2025-04-15

The enactment of the Community Land Act, 2016 presents a paradigm shift from the land registration system propagated circa 1950s in which security of rural tenure lay in the extinction of customary rights and their replacement with freehold or leasehold entitlements issued to individuals or corporate entities.

Under the Community Land Act, 2016, each community may, if it wishes, secure a single collective title over all or part of its lands, and lawfully govern this property. This includes regulating traditionally ‘private’ possession of portions of land within the community domain, as allocated to individual families for settlement or farming purposes. Customary practices may be applied within constitutional parameters of human and social rights.

In spite of the great prospects of the Community Land Act, 2016 its implementation has been slow due to administrative challenges including the problematic understanding the provisions of the Act by various stakeholders and dismal mobilization of resources for effective implementation. This has in turn created challenges for agencies, institutions and private investors interested in undertaking development projects in Community Land.

Per Section 7 of the Act, in concert with Section 15, the process of registration of Community Land commences with the application to the Community Land Registrar of an application for recognition of interest in or right over community land by representatives of a particular community.

This is followed by a series of actions guided by the Constitution of Kenya, including the election of the Community Land Management Committee to oversee the day-to-day administration and management of the community land on behalf of the community. This committee prescribes and submits to the Community Land Registrar, the rules and regulations to govern the operations
of the community in relation to land.

2025-04-15

The appellants, alongside the late Harcharan Singh Sehmi (whose case abated at the Court of Appeal following his passing on in 2019), were the registered proprietors of L.R. No. 209/2759/9 (I.R. 6477), situated in the Ngara area of Nairobi (hereinafter referred to as the “suit property”). They had acquired the SC PT No. E033 of 2023 Page 3 of 43 property in 1968 from Elizabeth Ann Maria Estreta Rodrigues for a consideration of Kshs. 25,000/- and were duly registered as tenants in common.

The tenure of the property was a leasehold for a term of fifty-nine (59) years commencing on 1st October 1942 and was scheduled to expire or for extension on the 1st October 2001. However, in October 2014, they were forcibly evicted from the property by the 1st and 2nd respondents who laid claim on the property under a separate title bearing a new I.R. number, L.R. No. 209/2759/9 (I.R 12263).

The Supreme Court has unequivocally affirmed that upon the expiry of a lease, if it is not formally renewed, the leasehold interest is extinguished in its entirety. The land in question automatically reverts to the Government, transforming from a private leasehold back into public land.

The court's position is clear: continued occupation or payment of land rent/ rates does not override the fundamental principle that a lease, once expired and unrenewed, ceases to have any legal effect.