NLC’s new plan to curb grabbing of public land
National Land Commission CEO Kabale Tache Arero.
The National Land Commission (NLC) is pushing for the introduction of a certificate of reservation in a fresh bid to tame the rampant grabbing of public land.
The proposed land document will be in addition to the already existing certificate of lease and certificate of title currently provided in law.
The NLC said that the unique identification document will only be issued for public land to differentiate it from private land.
NLC’s Land Administration and Management Director Dr Samuel Nthuni said that the two land documents that already exist do not guard against misuse of public land by unscrupulous public officers.
To rein in on such officers, Dr Nthuni explained that the introduction of a certificate of reservation will ensure public land is reserved for a specific purpose perpetually.
He pointed out that the use of public land is perpetual, hence the need to have a certificate of reservation instead of a certificate of lease or title to guard against any future attempt to grab it or use it for a purpose it was not set out for.
Public land
Dr Nthuni said the use of public land will be specified in the certificate. The certificate of lease or title do not have such specificity.
“We want to make sure that the documentation of public land is different from public land. To be able to make documentation of public land unique from that of private land, our proposal is to have a certificate of reservation which will reserve such public land for a specific purpose,” said Dr Nthuni.
“If there is public land set aside for a primary school, then we issue a certificate of reservation showing the piece of land has been reserved for that specific purpose. People get titles for schools and trade with them or go to a bank and charge the title yet it is public land,” he added.
He said the law; Section 15 (1) of The Land Act, 2012, already gives the Commission, in consultation with the national government and county governments, by order in the gazette, the power to reserve public land for one or more purposes in the public interest in accordance with Article 66(1) of the Constitution.
Section 15(2) of the Act further states that land that has been reserved by the Commission shall only be used for the purpose set out by the Commission in the order designating the reservation and shall not be subject to allocation or development.
Dr Nthuni said the proposal is part of NLC’s suggestions that they want captured in the Lands (Amendment) Bill, 2022 that is before Parliament.
“It is the same way we have number plates. When someone sees a GK number plate they know that is a government vehicle, the same applies to a private number plate which indicates that a car is privately owned,” he said.
Certificate of reservation
“Take, for instance, a school like Moi Avenue Primary School which is right in the middle of the city. What will happen if its lease expires? The governor can decide that the school’s lease will not be renewed and the land might be used for something else. However, with a certificate of reservation, it is perpetual. It will never get to a point where a public land lease requires renewal,” he added.
A 2023 report by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra) showed that at least 200,000 land titles have been created as a result of land grabbing.
Kippra stated that public school land is one of the most-at-risk land targeted by grabbers.
The agency defined land grabbing as the privatisation of public land through illegal allocation of land to individuals and corporations in total disregard of public interest.
A 2020 report dubbed A Handbook for Public Schools Land Defenders, Shule Yangu Alliance Campaign 2020, indicated that only 30 percent of public schools are safe from land grabbers.
The report stated that more than 4,100 public schools have formally reported that they were at risk of being grabbed due to lack of ownership documents where only 22,648 schools have titles.
