Land governance has often been used as a tender for patronage. It has been beset by land grabbing, ethnic clashes and proliferation of squatters. The commissioners were supposed to depoliticise it by addressing historical land injustice, regularisation and registration of land as captured in Ndung’u and TJRC reports.
As per their mandate, they were also expected to establish a framework to prevent and resolve land-related disputes, including alternative justice system.
“The biggest conflict currently between communities is not specifically about their titles but the borderlines between the counties, such as between Kambas and Taitas, Nandis and Luos,” Odenda said.
“There are over 19 disputes over community land boundaries. Those are the things NLC was to look at. This is under community land law. But it seems it is not lucrative to give them direct benefits. Therefore, they ignored it.”
“Instead of land valuations promoting equitable land distribution, NLC commissioners turned it to a tool of disposition and primitive accumulation,” Akoth added.
As per their mandate, Odenda said they were also required to recommend a national land policy to national government. But as they exit today, Kenya still has an old land policy that has not been reviewed in 10 years.
“What they seem to have is only a concept upon which a policy will be formulated, which they claim is for the ministry, contrary to what was envisaged,” he said.
However, NLC chair Muhammad Swazuri said he is satisfied with many achievements they have made.
“The Kenyan citizen now understands very well that the commission is the independent constitutional institution established to oversee the much-needed land reform in the country, a breakthrough that clears the way for the incoming team of commissioners and their chairman,” he said in a self-assessment captured in their exit report.
Swazuri said at its inception, the commission encountered a lot of resistance, reluctance and outright objection from several interested parties in the land sector that were sceptical of change and the land reform agenda. It took more than two years for the commission to find its proper footing, he said.
“From changes in the relevant land laws to disagreements over detailed procedural technicalities, the commission endured continuous hurdles that threatened its very existence. I am happy to state that the commission, through my leadership, managed to overcome the challenges, grounded itself in its specialisations, and offered the necessary guidance on all matters relevant to its constitutional mandate,” he said.