On 27th August 2010, Kenya’s new constitution was promulgated. This set in place a process of implementation through the enactment of different legislations and setting up of new institutional frameworks as envisaged in the new constitutional dispensation. For the land sector, far reaching legal and institutional reforms are envisaged in Chapter 5 of the constitution. The Chapter on Land and Environment also lays out broad principles through which land and the environment shall be managed.

Despite a history of more than 100 years and the introduction of provisional maps to support land registration, the Kenyan cadastre is largely incomplete. It consists of a patchwork of maps of different positional qualities, which would not be readily integrated to create a nation-wide coverage. This paper outlines the structure of the Kenyan cadastre and analyses the quality of the cadastral maps with regard to the requirements of modern land administration.

This thesis examines the extent to which Kenya’s domestic legal framework vindicates indigenous peoples’ land rights. The question of who is an indigenous person in Kenya is, of course, controversial. In order to avoid becoming enmeshed in this debate, this thesis adopts the approach of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is based on identifying the key concerns faced by marginalised communities who self-identify as indigenous peoples.