Coming: New law that could ease land prices, but...

The Government has published a bill that could add millions of acres of land to the property market, thus taming ever-rising land prices in the country. The Community Land Bill (2015) proposes to have all community land, which comprises 67 per cent of Kenya’s land mass, registered. The bulk of land in Kenya is unregistered and therefore un-tradeable. It is estimated that only six million title deeds have been issued since independence.

Members of the Maasai and Samburu communities from Laikipia, Samburu, Kajiado and Narok, after they made a declaration demanding the government return to them hectares of land in private developers’ hands mid last month. While the proposed law seeks to streamline land management, experts have questioned provisions on community land. (PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD)

The tiny number of registered parcels of land is partly to blame for high property prices.