By IBRAHIM MWATHANE
We are living in interesting
times. It’s only a few years since we enacted key legislation to guide
the
holding and dealings in our private, public and community land as required under the 2010 Constitution. But we have been lately treated to some public narrative that provokes thought.
holding and dealings in our private, public and community land as required under the 2010 Constitution. But we have been lately treated to some public narrative that provokes thought.
This
includes demands that landowners who purchase land outside their
indigenous zones should not seek elective positions. Moreover, they must
confine the use of their land to only what is acceptable to local
residents.
This has rattled some people in these areas,
while others have seized it to score political points. Having
participated in numerous forums where experts exercise discretion to
navigate intellectually, at times going absolutely extremist, this was
unsurprising.
Land means different things to different
people. Some see an economic commodity, to be sold or exchanged for
value, the beneficiary notwithstanding. Others see a social-cultural
good around which to mobilize the identity and existence of communities.
Yet
others see land as a political tool through which to leverage their
vote baskets. Many others care less for any of these. They care less
about the identity or place of origin of the owners, provided that they
can obtain accommodation or run businesses on the developments thereon.
Currently, our constitution gives any person the right to
acquire and own property of any description or interest anywhere in the
republic. And the use of such land can only be regulated in the interest
of matters such as defence, public order or public safety.
Public
health, public morality and land use planning are also grounds for land
use regulation. Nothing else! Under our laws, one popular and rather
liberal way of acquiring title to land is free market purchase. This is
the avenue through which many Kenyans have acquired and owned land
outside their areas of origin.
Under our constitution
and the laws, land rights so acquired are legitimate and protected.
Kenya’s land market is free! Worldwide, free land markets have been
liberally used to redistribute land, with those willing to exchange it
for cash freely offering it in the market for purchase by those needy
and willing.
And much as it has its downside, this
practice will only scale up as more countries embrace free market
dynamics. In places where such markets have been well exploited, they
have driven great changes in demographics, politics, land use patterns
and economies.
New land owners will usually move in
with new demands and lifestyles. They multiply with time. They seek to
have their voices heard so as to ensure that their lifestyles and
preferences are accommodated in policy planning and implementation.
Therefore,
they gradually seek participation in local and national politics.
Invariably, they will seek social and commercial services, hence
starting off new market centres, or expanding existing ones.
This creates further demands for land and influences land size and land use changes.
Consequently, this most natural growth expands the economies of the affected areas.
Here
in Kenya, Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado and Narok have suffered a
major brunt from free land market forces. The demographics and land use
in these counties today is a far cry from that in the seventies and
eighties. The heavy settlement by land purchasers from outside these
counties changed both land use and politics. It has been such a gradual,
free and natural progression that no one ever stopped to think about
it. This is so for Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu,
Laikipia and Isiolo too.
Current and incoming political
leaders in these highly cosmopolitan counties will have to beware this
continuing and irreversible reality. And perhaps if we did some targeted
assessment, the free land market driven changes in these areas have
been responsible for the overall improvement in their infrastructural,
social and commercial services, hence improved livelihoods.
The writer is chair, Land Development and Governance Institute.
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