Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Lands, Kenya: Support to the Land Reform Transformation Unit and Strategic Land Information Management Systems
The Kenya Land Reform Support Programme (LRSP) was a follow up by the donors’ Development Partners Group on Land (DPGL) of the support to the National Land Policy Formulation Process (NLPFP) in order to implement the National Land Policy (NLP). In order to prepare for the implementation of the NLP, a Land Reform Transformation Unit (LRTU) was established in October 2007 within the Ministry of Lands (MoL). Besides the NLP, two other documents steer the land reform process, namely Kenya Vision 2030 and the Constitution 2010. Kenya Vision 2030 recognises that land is a critical resource for socio-economic and political development and that respect for property rights to land is an important driver of rapid economic transformation. Key challenges mentioned are insecure land ownership; unsustainable land use; poor land administration and weak land information systems. Vision 2030 priorities are: Sustainable land use, Land Reforms, Land and boundary disputes and Land information system. The Ministry of Lands’ Strategic Plan 2008 – 2012 is the road map for the implementation of the Kenya Vision 2030 within the Ministry. Constitution 2010 provides for far reaching changes in the country, of which transformation concerning land and environmental issues are essential.
The Land Reform Support Programme aimed to support the country on the road to achieve efficient, sustainable and equitable use of land for prosperity and posterity in line with the new constitution, the National Land Policy and Vision 2030 in a harmonized way. Technical Assistance was provided to support the Ministry of Lands and the Land Reform Transformation Unit during 2009-2011.
The implementation of the entire Land Reform programme was a complex change programme involving a wide range of stakeholders and the implementation of many interlinked activities to achieve the overall Land Reform objectives. The programme involved considerable capacity and capability building across the stakeholder communities to achieve success. The outputs from the strategic components of the programme generated an integrated strategic framework for the operation of the LRTU and subsequently the National Land Commission.