[Article published in the Business Daily on Monday, 24th September 2018]
The Community Land Act seeks to improve management of communally owned land, while doing away with the challenges that came about with the Group Representatives Act. The law provides for sustainable use and management of community land, and prioritizes community needs and benefit in cases where the land is to be compulsorily acquired for a public purpose or for investment.
The Act was enacted in August 2016 and will also guide the transition from group ranches and trust lands to registered community land that will have a certificate of title.
For now, county governments hold these lands in trust for communities. However, the counties are not to sell, transfer, or convert for private purposes any unregistered community land. Once the regulations are passed, the counties will now have one year to submit an inventory of all community land within their borders.
This may require an exercise of identifying how communities define themselves, as well as identifying the shared land and natural resources within the respective territories (and the relationships between use and ownership). Additionally, it would be prudent to identify areas where dispute over ownership may arise, and possibly begin initiating some form of lawfully acceptable resolution process.
For the process of identifying community land to be participatory, and to run smoothly, it is important that the respective communities fully understand what the Act means to their livelihoods. Simple issues like what a community is (beyond ethnicity and ancestry), and how a community can be registered need to be broken down.
Communities also need to understand how the management committee will be constituted and what their roles and responsibilities are. A public sensitization programme at county level can be an innovative way to do this. Counties can partner with civil society organisations (CSOs) and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to coordinate this process and employ a strategy that optimizes the existing avenues of civic engagement. Counties also have the financial and institutional capacity to cover all communities within their scope.
Seeing as most counties with community land are among the largest in the country, it is important that the respective county governments act fast and make this a priority. One way to ensure these communities are well prepared for the implementation of the law will be to put in place county and sub-county officers that can assist communities during this transition period. Perhaps a line of officers under the lands department coordinating community land activities such as working with the existing community institutions to identify the extent of the land, and using this information to build the county’s inventory of community land.
This line of officers can also coordinate the community land sensitization programmes and ensure the coverage goes up to ward level. Having technical expertise in geographical information systems and the supporting infrastructure can also help counties to better manage unregistered community land.
Washe Kazungu, land and natural resource management specialist.
