News on Land

Nairobi. President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday declared the drought ravaging parts of the country a national disaster.

The declaration comes just a month after the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) said an estimated 2.1 million Kenyans face acute food shortage and would be in urgent need of assistance in the coming six months.

This was a rise of more than 600,000 people from the 1.4 million Kenyans the government in April said faced hunger due to the drought and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Activist Okiya Omtatah has moved to court to challenge a section of the law that limits the period within which victims of historical land injustices can make compensation claims.

Mr Omtatah argues it is not practically possible that the National Land Commission (NLC) will have addressed the victims' grievances captured in reports such as Ndung’u, Akiwumi, Kiliku, Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the standard gauge railway (SRC) by May 2022 when the 10-year limit lapses.

The timelines began running from the commencement of the NLC Act on May 2, 2012.

USAID and Colombia’s Superintendence of Notary and Registry (SNR) continue recovering important land records by digitizing files and building the entity’s capacity to serve a healthy land market.

In 2016, when USAID tried to support the Colombian government with the digitization of rural land and property files, this initiative encountered resistance.

Posting Title: Programme Management Officer, Human Settlements, P4 (Temporary Job Opening)
Job Code Title: Programme Management Officer, Human Settlements
Department/Office: United Nations Human Settlements Programme
Duty Station: KINSHASA
Posting Period: 17 August 2021 – 15 September 2021
Job Opening Number: 21-Human Settlements-UN-HABITAT-162034-J-Kinshasa (E)
Staffing Exercise: N/A

Landgrabs at  gunpoint escalate in Uganda as the operations of a defender of affected communities are suspended

On Friday, 20th August, Uganda's Non-Governmental Organization Bureau suspended 54 organizations for alleged 'non-compliance'. However for multinationals it was time to merry-make as their ‘nemesis’, Witness-Radio, has been cornered.   

Witness Radio - Uganda is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates the provision of legal representation and support to poor and vulnerable victims of land grabs financed by development financing.   

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 5 – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has secured 29,035 acres of land as habitat for wildlife in Amboseli, in the south of Kenya.

The agreement signed by Daniel Leturesh the Chairman of the Olgulului Ololarashi Group Ranch (OOGR) and Azzedine Downes, President and CEO, IFAW, will see 3,598 landowners benefit from annual lease fees and eventually eco-tourism revenue once the land is legally registered as a wildlife conservancy.

MORE than 75 per cent of Tanzanians live in urban areas in unplanned settlements, the situation contributed by the government slow pace in urban planning drive.

The remarks were made here yesterday by Shinyanga Regional Commissioner Dr Philemon Sengati at the opening of a task meeting that among others, reviewed the implementation of the Strategic Plan for 2020/21, and discussed challenges on solutions to land conflicts as well completing the implementation of National Land Formalization Plan on settlements for 2013- 2023.

The State Minister for Lands Sam Mayanja has responded to critics who accuse him of spearheading a plot by government to abolish the Mailo land tenure system and replace it with a freehold land tenure system. Mayanja has explained that the new proposals are instead aimed at strengthening ownership of land by the tenants on Mailo land so that they can acquire freehold land titles in perpetuity.

FISHERMEN in Lake Tanganyika lose between 50 and 70 percent of fish catch due to post-harvest fish losses, fisheries experts have said.

Director General of Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI) Dr. Ismael Kimirei said many
fishermen get huge loss because they don’t have proper handling, processing and storage facilities right from the net to the market.

He said during sunny, the losses range beyween 40 to 50 percent but during cloudy and rainy, the losses go up to 70 percent.

JOINT FAO-WFP NEWS RELEASE

6 November 2020, ROME - The world has been put on a heightened famine alert with a new report by two United Nations agencies that contains a stark warning; four countries contain areas that could soon slip into famine if conditions there undergo "any further deterioration over the coming months". These are Burkina Faso in West Africa's Sahel region, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.