Restore order in lands docket to unlock Kenya's potential

The Supreme Court has resolved a long-running contestation between the Lands Ministry and the National Lands Commission (NLC) on which institution is mandated by law to issue title deeds. The commission had gone to court seeking interpretation of the Constitution on an issue dear to most Kenyans, seeing the huge importance many of them put on land. Land ownership in Kenya is not only an economic factor but also an emotional, social and political tinderbox. It has been made a life and death affair over the years.

Indeed, many lives and livelihoods have been destroyed on account of land conflicts across the country. Families, communities, organisations and individuals have severed ties over land ownership, with devastating consequences. The courts are clogged by hundreds of thousands of disputes as different entities fight for prime land.