Kenya’s Vision 2030 aims at transforming the country into a newly industrialized middle income country

and infrastructural development is high on the agenda to achieve this. Competing land uses and existing

interests in land make the use of eminent domain by government in acquiring land inevitable. However

most of the land earmarked for compulsory acquisition comprises of un- registered land whose interests

Land Registration and Administration in Kenya is currently operated on a multi-legal platform [UN 2013]. The Land Registration Act No. 3 of 2012 (LRA) was in that regard enacted to consolidate, harmonize and rationalize land registration goals; which are yet to be achieved. This is majorly because in as much as the 2012 statute repealed five out of the seven major land registration laws, they all remain in force under LRA’s transitional clauses. The Government of Kenya is making efforts to avail land registration information online via the e-citizen platform.

In August 2017, Botswana’s parliament passed the Tribal Land Bill, which became the Tribal Land Act no. 1 of 2018. It shall come into operation once the minister sanctions. Until then, the 1994 Act shall be operational. The new Act is aimed at addressing the challenges that cannot be effectively addressed by the operational Act. Some hail it as progressive, but this article argues that the Act has some limitations. Its insistence on the registration of customary grants with the Registrar of Deeds may lead to unintended consequences, such as family conflicts.

Anywhere in the world land is the most important natural wealth for the country. The availability of land and its use are a vital part of human existence. Land records, therefore, are of great concern to every country’s government as well as every individual who owns, occupies, uses or has an interest in a parcel of land. In relation to land a person will feel secured or safe with regards to land rights if she has security of tenure and security of tenure is a question of fact.

Land registries play a key role in protecting landholders against dispossession and promoting good governance and economic development. Effective land agencies provide efficient and accessible land registration services, transparent land information, and clear ownership records to prevent disputes. Accurate records of property rights provide a basis for delivering services such as water or electricity, levying property taxes, enforcing zoning and environmental laws, and are necessary (although not sufficient) for landholders to use their properties as collateral.

Land is a natural resource that is limited and finite but with immense commercial (as an asset and factor of production), social-cultural, spiritual and aesthetic value. On the other hand, a family particularly in the context of Uganda is a fluid social construct deriving its strict definition from a particular social-cultural context. Land and family conflicts have been shown by various studies 1 to be the most prevalent form of livelihoods disruption to many households’ and individuals.

Approaches to securing tenure have been dominated by debates about whether titling advances secure land tenure and development in developing countries or whether it is either ineffectual or detrimental to socially more relevant systems. While the policies of many developing countries, including South Africa, continue to support titling approaches to securing tenure, there is widespread confirmation in the literature that title can be problematic for poor people living in both urban and rural areas.

The report provides a conceptual framework for understanding the application of 'adjudication' to land rights verification as part of a general land administration function that includes offregister rights; and outlines the motivation for developing such as system in South Africa, with some provisional ideas about systematising and institutionalising land rights adjudication to include off-register rights.

Public land is a resource that should be effectively managed in the public’s best interest in line with provisions of the Constitutions of Kenya and the Land Act. The management framework governing land use and development decisions on public land should ensure protection and sustainable management of the land. Despite these provisions in law, recent media reports point toresurgenceof public land grab. The Land Development and Governance Institute commissioned this research study to establish the status of the public land management in Kenya.

The acquisition of land by foreigners in developing countries has emerged as a key mechanism for foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI is defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the category of international investment that reflects the objective of a resident entity in one economy to obtain a lasting interest in an enterprise resident in another economy.

The Land Act, 2012

The Land Registration Act, 2012

The National Land Commission Act, 2012

The Environment & Land Court Act, 2011

The Urban Areas & Cities Act, 2011

Fiscal instruments are tools that governments use to manage revenue and expenditure and therefore influence the growth (or stability) of the various sectors of the economy. Government revenue is derived primarily through taxation. In Kenya, land taxation has contributed less than 1% of government revenue for the past three years. The Sessional Paper No.