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Scope of land management and its chance to implement urban development

based on global frameworks for land: Case study of Kenya Land Management
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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29459.94248

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 Scope of land management and its chance to
implement urban development based on global
frameworks for land: Case study of Kenya

Land Management in Theory and Practice: BV400022

Submitted by:
Ogutu Kanga Stellamaris;
Faculty of Civil, Geo and Environmental Engineering,
Chair of Land Management

Date: 13.02.2019
Introduction
Hernando de Soto (2002) in his book, “Mystery of Capital” concludes that capitalism triumphs
in the West and not in other places due to proper land management. Therefore, Land
management, is a key pillar for economic empowerment and prosperity. The report on secure
land rights for all (UN-Habitat, 2008), notes that land management is historically, technically
and politically complex, hence good governance is required to achieve it. In many developing
countries such as Kenya, this has been a challenge that has not only been perpetuated by bad
governance. External factors such as, population increase and climate change among others
have also influenced how land is administered. Lack of proper land management in Kenya is
manifested through institutional fragmentation, breakdown in land administration, disparity in
land ownership and poverty in general. Land management is an interdisciplinary concept that
is strongly linked to the country context as explained in this study.
This paper uses literature review as a method of evaluating the scope of land management
within the Kenyan context. This is done by the identifying the global land related institutions
active in the country. Thereafter, listing the strategies and policies that these institutions have
initiated for better land administration and management. On the next section, the paper
describes the instruments, laws and policies used for urban planning and development. This
aims at establishing the instruments the country uses for urban development and the institutional
framework in place. The section further compares how Germany employs the same through
analysis of the Bavarian integrated rural development concept. Finally, the paper looks into the
challenges of land management and critically evaluating the scope of land management, based
on the land management paradigm and its chances to implement urban development.
Based on the findings, various strategies and policies from international institutions, are being
used to assist Kenya manage land sustainably. This has great impact in the improvement of the
country’s land governance system. Comparing urban planning and development instruments
used by both Kenya and Germany, we find that having laws and policies is not enough to
achieve sustainable development. One needs, community participation in all development
projects and good political support regionally and within the country. Through the evaluation
of the scope of land management based on the land management paradigm, we can see that land
administration, is the main aspect of ensuring sustainable development of economic, social and
environmental factors of land. This is attained through an efficient land market and effective
management of land use (Enemark, 2005).

1
Global Land Related Institutions Active in Kenya
“You talk about land, you talk about life!” This phrase has different meanings from one country
to another, based on the degree of personal attachment certain group of people have with respect
to land. In Kenya, Land is a matter of life and death and a factor of measure of wealth and
poverty which is the same in many countries. However, there are unfortunate scenarios, that
makes this phrase have a deeper meaning for Kenyans. For instance, the final report from the 4
Truth, Justice & Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), indicates a very close linkage between
land injustices and ethnic violence in Kenya. Land related injustices, was a prominent factor
that precipitated violence between and within ethnic tribes in Kenya (Truth Justice and
Reconciliation Commission, 2013). Additionally, various authors articulate the potential
benefits of properly managed land administration system anchored on good governance to
security of tenure (Zevenbergen, De Vries, & Bennett, 2015). Nevertheless, this is yet to be
realised in Kenya since the functionalities of cadastre and land registries are separated hence an
enormous challenge for land administration. With no synchronisation of the two systems, there
is room for corruption, example is “the Ruaraka primary school land compensation saga”,
where the same parcel of land which should be a public land, is compensated to various private
entities to a tune of approximately 1.5 Billion KES (Psirmoi, 2018).
The problems discussed above among other land related challenges, birthed the need to engage
various global land related institutions (see table 1 below). These institutions have supported
and partnered with the Kenyan government in building up systems of good land governance.
Which is being achieved through implementing instruments, strategies and land policies that
are geared toward responsible land administration and equitable land distribution. The main
aim is to combat inconsistency of the information in the two land registers through
establishment of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) which will foster data sharing and a Land
Information Management System (LIMS) for automation of land administration workflows,
hence minimising risks for corruption. Examples of such partnership is the Turkana County
LIMS based on the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM). It was developed under the project
dubbed “Support for Responsible Land and Natural Resource Governance of Communal Lands
in Turkana County, Kenya” by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-
Habitat)/ The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and the United Nations (UN), Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning and Urban Areas
Management of the Turkana County Government-Kenya (GLTN, 2017).
It is worth noting that the UN Office in Nairobi, is one of four major UN office sites, where
various UN agencies have a presence. Therefore, there are numerous international organisations
that exist in Kenya to serve the sub-Sahara region. For the purposes of this work, only six global
organisations that have an upper hand in land related issues have been listed in table 1 below
as a representation of the rest.

2
 Table 1: Global Land Related Institutions in Kenya
Global Land Related
Institutions Focus Areas Instruments/Tools Sources
UN-Habitat and GLTN Tenure security and • Access to land and Tenure Security Tool. (GLTN, 2019)
Land administration • Land Administration and Information Tool.
tools • Secure Land Right for all - Continuum of Land
Rights.
• Tenure Responsive Land-Use Planning
FAO Good Governance • Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance (FAO, 2019)
of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests.
• 12 Strategies for the responsible Governance of
Tenure rights to common.
• The 10 Guiding principles for the implementation of
responsible tenure.
AU-UNECA-AfDB Land policy • Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy (African Union, Africa Development
development Initiative (LPI) in Africa. Bank, & Economic Commission for
Africa, 2010)

The World Bank Group Good Governance • World Bank Land Governance Assessment (Kameri-Mbote, 2016)
Framework (LGAF)
• Doing Business assesses measured by the 11
Indicators set by the World Bank.
FIG and World Bank Land administration • Fit-for-Purpose (FFP) Land Administration. (Gitau, 2018)
• Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)
GIZ Land use planning, land • Understanding, preventing and solving conflicts - A (GIZ, 2019)
conflict management practical guide and toolbox.
and land policy • Land Use Planning. Concept, Tools and
Application.
• Sector Project Land Policy and Land Management.

3
Rural and Urban Development

Introduction to Country Context Kenya

Kenya, officially Republic of Kenya since 1963, is a Country in East Africa. Its territory lies
on the equator and covers a diverse and expansive terrain of approximately 581,309 km2 and a
population of approximately 48 million (Wikipedia Contributors, 2018). Administratively,
Kenya has 47 semi-autonomous Counties that are headed by Governors as the first order of
power. Locations are the smallest administrative units headed by a Chief, appointed by the state
to carry out administrative functions on behalf of the President (National Land Policy, 2009)
The Urban Areas and Cities Act (2011) mandates the County government to initiate an urban
planning process for every settlement with a population of at least two thousand residents. With
a population density of 92 per Km2 (Worldometers, 2017), this indicates that most settlement
are perceived to be urban and an urban planning process is administered. It is in this view that
most of the initiated efforts by the government are geared towards urbanisation rather than
ruralisation. With respect to the demographic changes and economic activities of the urban
areas, the instruments explained herein explicitly explains the role the government plays in
setting laws, strategies and institutional frameworks for managing urban development in Kenya.
Kenya’s Instruments for Urban Development
Constitution Context.
The Constitution of Kenya (2010) has been perceived to be the key to land reforms in the
country. This is due to the various articles in the constitution that support land matters unlike
the previous independence constitution 1963. With respect to urban land use planning in Kenya,
the following articles gives mandate to administer, by the county government and overall
monitoring and oversight to the National land commission (NLC).
i) Article (66), regulation of land use and property; it gives the state the power to
regulate the use of any land in the interest of land use planning.
ii) Article (67), the monitoring and oversight role; it assigns NLC the monitoring and
oversight in the country, thus creating a framework for clarity of roles between the
planning agency and the oversight agency.
iii) Article (184), stipulates the need to make legislation to provide for governance and
management of urban areas and cities.
Source: (Constitution of Kenya, 2010)
Policy Context
National land policy notes the various land use management issues and suggest appropriate
strategies that the government shall put in place for managing sustainable growth and
development of urban and rural areas. Furthermore, it also outlines the various principles of
land use planning to be addressed in land use planning (National Land Policy, 2009).
National Urban Development Policy seeks to improve access to land for urban development
through creation of framework for sustainable urban development. It further addresses the
following thematic areas: urban economy; urban finance; urban governance and management;
national and county urban planning; land, environment and climate change; social infrastructure
and services; physical infrastructure and services; urban housing; urban safety and disaster risk
management; and marginalized and vulnerable groups (Nabutola, 2012).

4
Legal Context
There is a need for other instruments such as Laws and Policies that set the rules and regulation
governing the desired urban development. Table 2 illustrates the current laws and policies used
in Kenya to manage urban development.
Table 2: Urban Development Laws and Policies in Kenya.
Instruments Objectives Source
Urban Areas and To operationalise Article 184 of the Constitution, by (Urban Areas and
Cities Act, 2011 providing guidelines for creation of County Plans Cities Act, 2011)
such as; County Spatial Plans, County Integrated
Development Plans, Sectoral Plans, Integrated urban
Development Plans and City/Municipal/Urban Area
Land Use Plans.
Physical Planning An Act of Parliament that provides for the preparation (Physical Planning
Act, 1996 and implementation of physical development plans. Act, 1996)
This is implemented through;
• Physical Planning (Building and
Development) Control.
• Physical Planning (Development Plans)
Regulation Physical.
• Planning (Enforcement Notices) Regulations.
National Land To monitor and ensure land use planning in the (National Land
Commission country is carried out as per the functions of the Commission Act,
(NLC) Act, 2012 commission and law. 2012)
Develop an effective system for coordinating and
monitoring the land use planning functions in the
national and county governments.
Environmental • To take stock of the natural resources in Kenya (Environmental
Management and and their utilization and conservation. Management and
Coordination • To establish and review land use guidelines. Coordination Act,
(Amendment) Act • Examine land use patterns to determine their 2015)
2015 impacts on the quality and quantity of natural
resources.
County Mandate the county government to develop county (County
Governments Act planning framework. This integrate economic, Government Act,
2012 physical, social, environmental and spatial planning. 2012)

It further gives the county government mandate to

designate county departments, cities and urban areas,
sub-counties and wards as planning authorities.

The act also makes county plans to be binding on all

sub-county unit.

5
Institutional Framework
As stated earlier, through article 66 and 184 of the Constitution, the power to manage Urban
areas has been devolved from the National government acting as the advisory to the County
government as the implementors. This is to delegate services to the under developed rural areas
and to ensure more citizen participation. The roles are also distinguished between private and
public land with NLC having the mandate to manage public land on behalf of the National and
County government while the Ministry of Lands is responsible for private land (Constitution of
Kenya, 2010). The Institutions responsible for implementing these Laws and Policies are the
following:
i) Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning - The ministry dealing with matters related to
land management. It comprises six departments: i) Land Adjudication and Settlement, ii)
Surveys, iii) Land Administration, iv) Land Valuation, v) Land Registration and vi)
Physical Planning. The main function of the department of Physical Planning is the
provision of advisory and national physical planning services. It also sets the general
principles on land planning and coordination of planning by counties in terms of policies,
standards and guidelines and technical assistance and capacity building. Based on this, they
have developed the National spatial plan 2015 – 2045 that defines the country’s general
trend in spatial development (National Spatial Plan, 2018)
ii) National Land Commission (NLC) – Article 67 of the Constitution of Kenya mandates
NLC, to monitor and have oversight responsibilities over land use planning throughout the
country. As an independent commission, NLC has the responsibility to give guidelines and
be an oversight body for urban land use and planning. This is to ensure functional,
economically vibrant, environmentally resilient and socially inclusive cities and urban
areas (National Land Commission Act, 2012).
iii) County Government – The promulgation of the Constitution created 47 County
governments in 2010. The Urban Areas and Cities Act, 2011 (Article 12) confides the
management and administration of all municipalities and cities to these County
government. This aims at decentralising services from the National government and for
better service delivery (County Government Act, 2012).

6
Introduction to Country Context Germany
Federal Government
Germany is a Federal Republic consisting of 16 States, three of which are city States. The
Federal Government sets guidelines for implementing regional planning and realising urban
and rural development. With respect to urban and rural planning and development the federal
government sets the following planning and construction law statutes;
i) The Federal Regional Planning Act, (Raumordnungsgesetz, ROG), sets out
institutional framework of procedures of spatial planning. Additionally, it offers guidelines for
coordinating inter-governmental planning issues as well as establishing basic concepts
regarding spatial planning (Dannemann, 2015).
ii) The Federal Building Code Act, (Baugesetzbuch, BauGB), that defines the scope,
definition and principles of urban land use planning. It further offers the functions of land use
planning in prepare and control of use of land within municipalities, who have the responsibility
of preparing land use plans (Dannemann, 2015).
The States ensure compliance of the local plans developed by the Municipalities through
approving land use plans developed by the local authorities and coordinating both public and
private infrastructure development (Chigbu, 2012).
Policy Context
The Spatial Development Concept and Strategy (2006), is a policy document concerning federal
spatial planning, takes inconsideration sustainability. It places emphasis on three areas: i)
achieving growth and innovation, ii) ensuring public services, iii) conserving resources, and
preserving and nurturing cultural landscape.
Spatial planning in Germany is organised in a system of graded responsibilities. Therefore, is
therefore no binding spatial plan which covers the whole Federal Republic of Germany. In
accordance with the Federal Spatial Planning Act, state governments individually establish
Wide-area Plan for State Area (state-wide area plan) for the whole state and Wide-area Plans
for Partial Areas of State (regional plan) for some part of the state. Regional plans have now
been established in 104 regions throughout the whole federation.
Integrated Rural Development Concept
This is an example of one of the strategies employed by the Germany, through the Bavarian
State to realise rural development. One can see the involvement of the local authorities in
initiating land use agenda and the state assisting in first approving the project then coordinating
with the local to implement it. This led to the development of the Integrated Rural Development
Concept, illustrated in the figure 1 below, with team work as its epicentre.

7
Figure 1: Integrated Rural Development Concept (Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry, 2006)
Village renewal, Land Consolidation, Rural Infrastructure and regional management. These
agendas were implemented within an integration of several communities pulling resources
together or single communities with strong financial power doing it independently. Irrespective
of the mode of implementation, the development project had the full backing of the political
and government institution through the Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Rural
Development Department, which aided in technically coordinating the commune by providing
superstructure planning and putting in place laws and policies such as;
i) Land Consolidation Act: Under the provisions of this Act, rural land holdings may be
rearranged with a view to improving the production and working conditions in agriculture
and forestry as well as promoting the general use and development of land. The objective
of land consolidation is to improve the production and working conditions in agriculture
and forestry while at the same time promoting the development of rural areas. This is
achieved through measures such as Village Renewal, land readjustment, implementation
of construction and design, development of traffic management and infrastructure, water
management as well as soil, land and nature conservation and preservation.
(Flurbereinigungsgesetz) (Gollwitzer, 2018)
ii) Village renewal Guidelines: These guidelines aim at enabling Bavarian Village
Development Program to make the villages fit for the future in all aspects of its
development. They set the regulations for implementation of the exercise and to ensure
community participation. The process starts with submission of applications by the
communes to show their expression of interest. The community usually receives
assistance in planning, financial and organisational. (Dorferneuerungsrichtlinien)
(Chigbu, 2012).

8
Comparison between Germany and Kenya
An in-depth overview of both the urban and rural development efforts by the Kenya and the
Germany government, explained earlier, illustrates the uniqueness of both scenarios. Hence,
comparison based on the mode of execution of the different laws and policies and the
management of the instruments and more specific, how it has been possible for Bavaria to
realise its rural development goals has been done.
Laws and policies
In both countries we see a well-structured set of rules and regulation governing land
management and by extension urban and rural development. Delegation of power to a lower
level, especially by central government to local administration can be seen in both countries. In
Kenya the constitution is the greatest guiding principle of all laws in the country and from it we
have land as a chapter. Moreover, several Acts of parliaments exist to ensure efficient
management of land use. The formation of the counties as autonomous units in Kenya has
enabled the government to distribute its functions and mandates (Bruce, 2009). In Germany,
just like in Kenya, land management concepts and initiatives are anchored in law. This has been
explained above with the examples of the various Acts of parliament from both the Federal
government and the State.
However, the main difference in the two sets of laws and policies from the Kenyan perspective
is the lack of explicit laws for Rural development. This is because the transfer of power from
the counties to the sub counties and eventually the local communities is missing. This has
affected the level of citizen participation in development projects. Germany has laws for
ruralisation a key example illustrated in the Bavarian rural development concept. Kenya on the
other hand has several citations in the constitution on maintain and supporting rural areas,
however, there are no laws and policies to realise this at the location levels. This has resulted
to all initiatives by the county government to gear towards urbanisation.
Community participation
Top down decision-making mechanism is common across Kenyan government institutions
even after attempts toward devolution. This can be seen from the various initiatives on
development matters where politics has taken centre stage. For example, the Big Four Agenda
is a political drive, for the incumbent president, which if achieved or not will be changed by the
next regime. This has cultivated a culture of initiating projects by politicians who are not a
permanent figure rather than the citizens who have permanent position in the society and can
therefore initiate a project that they consider important to its community and manage it to its
completion irrespective of the political regime.
Land consolidation in Bavaria is rooted in the tradition of the Bavarian cooperative principal.
The participating landowners form the Community, public corporation, assumes responsibility
for the planning and implementation of projects. This is a public corporation which works as a
"non-permanent authority", supervised by the Office for Rural Development, it has extensive
organizational tasks, which are professionally and legally regulated (Bavarian Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry, 2006). Community participation initiative is further demonstrated
through the Village renewal programme, by the formulation of various Residence Working
Group who volunteer to work on a project together for the village.

9
Regional support
Africa as a region has several development challenges, with poverty and hunger being the main
challenges (Benno, 2007). This has seen less focus on Land matters, we can associate this to
the challenges faced by the region or lack of political good will to handle land issues. The AU,
UNECA and AfDB formulated the Framework and Guidelines on LPI in Africa with an aim of
enhancing knowledge and mutual learning, lobbying political will and financial support for land
policy formulation and implementation in Africa. This indicates that most African countries are
yet to develop Land Policies and hence cannot focus on Urban and Rural development without
a Land Policy in place, therefore for region to initiate urban and rural development, it must first
cross the bridge of Land Policy formulation.
Rural Development is the second Pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy. This provides the
European Union (EU) Member States with an envelope of EU funding to manage nationally or
regionally under multi-annual, co-funded programs. In addition to the EU, the German Federal
Government, through the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, has one goal of maintaining
rural areas as attractive and vibrant country regions through the various initiated rural
development programmes all over Germany. There is also the Joint Task for the Improvement
of Agricultural Structures and Coastal Protection, which is aimed at making the agricultural and
forestry sectors efficient, competitive and oriented towards future challenges, while
safeguarding the vitality of rural areas and improving coastal protection (European
Commission, 2014).All these initiatives show the support of not only the Federal Government
but also the regional support the EU.
Land Management - National and International practices
Describe the Main Challenges for Land Management in Kenya
Although many developing countries have completely restructured their legal and regulatory
framework related to land and have tried to harmonize tenure systems, millions of people still
have insecure land tenure (Wanyonyi, Nyadimo, & Kariuki, 2015). Land management
challenge for most developing countries results in environmental, social, economic and political
problems. This further leads to deterioration in land quality, landlessness, urban sprawl, tenure
insecurity and land conflicts (National Land Policy, 2009). Other challenges that are unique to
Kenya’s quest for better land management are;
Colonial History
Ngoga (2018) in his book “Rwanda Land Tenure Reforms”, notes that a dual land tenure system
exists in most African countries. Customary tenure systems that originate from the locals before
colonisation and the statutory tenure systems which are based on real property law of the
respective African countries’ colonial masters. This has led to two conflicting tenure systems
since no consultation was done by the colonial masters when imposing the statutory tenure
system and as such, has experienced major resistance and conflicts of interest to date. The
colonial regime set in motion discriminatory policies, which maximised the exploitation of land
and natural resources. This further resulted into existence of many land laws based on mainly
the statutory system and in very rear cases based on the customary system. As a result, complex
land management and administration system has been manifested through fragmentation,
breakdown in land administration, disparity in land ownership and poverty in general (National
Land Policy, 2009).

10
Use of Land for Political Patronage
Once Kenya gained its independence, the arable white highlands that had been uneven alienated
to only the white settlers, had reverted to the government for resettling the squatters, however
this was not the case. Instead, abuse of existing land laws and other state powers, irregular
allocation (grabbing) of public land by key officials in the government was the norm. This
resulted to bureaucrats and politicians hijacking settlements schemes, rewarding self and
cronies, hence schemes become an avenue for land concentrations instead of resolving
landlessness. Apart from that, Kenya has a deep-rooted culture of ethnicization and
politicization of land question which results into frequent land strife and land conflicts cyclic
with electioneering period. Efforts by land managers to settle land issues has been met by
dwindling political interest. In several instances, political interest overrides technical and
administrative requirements for solution to land problems (Kuria, 2018).
Ambiguous Land Laws
Kenya has a National Land Policy (2009) and new Constitution (2010) which aims at addressing
land problems related to allocation, distribution, acquisition and ownership. Moreover, the
enactment of the new Constitution provided for the revision, consolidation and rationalization
of land laws to replace the various laws that deal with the management, administration and
registration of land. This is geared towards reducing confusion that arose from the numerous
land laws in the previous Constitution (Wanyonyi et al., 2015). Nevertheless, these land laws
have had serious down side experienced from the frequent Institutional turf between NLC and
the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning. this has hindered key land reforms such as the
realisation of the National LIMS. Furthermore, the ambiguous land laws have had several
amendments due to perception of lack of clarity in mandates as defined in law and element of
mistrust amongst institution involved. This has opened room for mischief by land cartels who
are resistance to change in land management (Kuria, 2018).
Critically Evaluate the Scope of Land Management in Kenya and Its Chances to
Implement Rural and Urban Development
When land is poorly managed, as it is in Kenya, the associated problems often lead to disputes,
land degradation and loss of socio-economic development opportunities. This was explained in
the challenges of land management in Kenya in the previous section. It therefore goes without
saying that, sustainable land management is an important factor for ensuring balance between
socio-economic and ecological needs. To critically evaluate the scope of land management in
Kenya and its chances to implement rural and urban development, we must discuss it with
respect to the Land Management Paradigm as shown in the figure 2 below. In the diagram,
sustainable land management is described based on the main components; Land policy, Land
information Infrastructure and Institutional arrangement that forms the backbone for Land
Administration and hence when properly implemented will result into sustainable development.

11
Figure 2. The Land Management Paradigm (Enemark, 2005).
Land Policy Framework
Implementation of the National land policy has paved way for the enactment of new land laws
and new governance institutions that was way over due for Kenyans. The land policy was
formulated to provide an overall framework and define the key measures required to address;
the critical issues of land administration; access to land and land use planning; restitution of
colonial land injustices; environmental degradation; conflicts; unplanned proliferation of
informal urban settlements; outdated legal framework; institutional framework and information
management (National Land Policy, 2009). Land use management is among the key seven land
management issues that the National Land Policy addresses. Under this section, the policy
explains the use of land in urban and rural areas and the task of the government in putting in
place appropriate laws and strategies for managing sustainable growth and development of
these area (Bruce, 2009; Nabutola, 2012)
Critically evaluating the scope of this policy with respect to urban and rural development,
Kenya has been able to achieve key milestone such as; the policy has led to an emphasis on
national and regional physical planning as a basis for investment and sustainable resources use
recognizing the local land use practices. The government has also established an effective
coordinating mechanism for the preparation, implementation of plans and development control
to reduce aspects of functional disconnect between the plan preparatory authorities and
implementing agencies. However, Bruce (2009) on his publication, to the United States Agency
for International Development on the analysis and recommendation of the National Land
Policy, notes a shortcoming in the policy that it does not discuss nor suggest the standards to
govern the constitutional turf between property rights and use regulation or the institutional
ambiguity, and as of such, this has resulted into a policy that is extremely intrusive and laws
that are prone to amendment. With all this said and done, it is crucial to remember that policies
are to some degree “interim”, and due to changes in economies, societal and political events
usually require the policy to be adjusted to take these key factors into account.

12
Land Information Infrastructure
The basic building block in any land administration system is the land parcel as identified in
the cadastre therefore management of land information infrastructure includes organization of
land data engine (cadastre) and implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). In Kenya
this role is executed under the department of Survey. The proposed Survey Bill 2018, that is to
repeal the former outdated Survey Act Cap 299 of 1961, “a cadastral map” means a map
prepared and maintained by the Surveyor-General for the purposes of land registration in
accordance with section 15 of the Land Registration Act, 2012. This shows the key role played
by the cadastral system is securing of land rights. However, the cadastral systems include the
interaction between the identification of land parcels through the data land engine, the
registration of land rights, the valuation and taxation of land, and the use of land. In this aspect
we see the inefficiency of the Kenya land management in the successful implementation of a
rural and urban development which can be achieved if the cadastral infrastructure system
identifies the interaction of the cadastre through rural and urban development.
Institutional Arrangement
The Land management activities rely on some form of land administration infrastructure that
permits the complex range of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in land to be identified,
mapped and managed as a basis for policy implementation (Enemark, 2005). With respect to
this, various institutions have been set up to manage rural and urban development. Kenya has
initiated devolution, and this has seen the trickling down of services to the rural areas. Studies
shows that, since the inception of the County Government, the implementation of rural and
urban development has seen tremendous improvement since the service delivery has been
brought down to the counties and with this they can influence their own needs rather than that
which is deemed necessary by national government and external stakeholders.
Land Administration Functions
The operational component of the land management concept is the range of land administration
functions that include the areas of: land tenure (securing and transferring rights in land and
natural resources); land value (valuation and taxation of land and properties); land use (planning
and control of the use of land and natural resources); and land development (implementing
utilities, infrastructure, and construction planning) (Enemark, Bell, Lemmen, & McLaren,
2014). Therefore, when these four interrelated systems are implemented effectively, it
facilitates efficient land markets and effective land-use management. This component heavily
links to the land policy and land information infrastructure and institutional arrangement for its
success. The status of land administration is Kenya is poor mainly due to bad governance. On
the other hand, there is no effective land-use management, since the National Land policy
initiated in 2009 is yet to achieve its full potential 10 years after inception leading to the set
land use controls not to be fully implemented.

13
Conclusion
The main objective of this paper was to research on the scope of land management and its
chance to implement urban development based on global frameworks for land. The research
achieved this by focusing on the following question. First, looking into the global land related
institution active in Kenya and specify their focus area with respect to land management and
good governance. Then stating the specific instruments, policies, and strategies each of them
employ. In the second section, the paper described the instruments, laws and policies used for
urban planning and development in Kenya. This was researched from several literature, then
compared to what Germany adopts. In the third section, the study described the main challenges
of land management in Kenya. Finally, the study critically evaluated the scope of land
management and its chances to implement for rural and urban development.
To respond to the research question, various literature was reviewed and critically analysed.
This formed the methodology of the study. Based on this research we came to realise that
Kenya, as a democratic country, has opened its economy to support from international
organisation. This can be experienced by the presence of the UN office in Nairobi. Furthermore,
the research also described the instruments used for urban and rural development focusing on
the constitutional context, policy context, legal context and the institutional framework in the
country. This aimed at creating a clear understanding of the tools the Kenyan government is
employing for managing urban areas. As a comparison of international best practices, Germany,
was analysed to see how they have employed the same tools and achieved efficient urban and
rural development. Additionally, a review of the challenges Kenya faces in managing land was
done. This was done through investigating the effect of colonisation to the country that affected
the political nature and the kind of laws and regulations that exist for land management. The
final research question was answered by looking into the land management paradigm to explain
the scope of land management in Kenya and its chances for rural and urban development.
Based on the findings of this study, we can conclude that land management is Kenya is
historically, technically and politically complex. Therefore, the government is collaborating
with international organisation to assist in improving the situation. This has results to key
milestones such as the development of the National land policy. Through the land policy, the
government has also been able to set guidelines and principles for urban and rural planning and
development. Which when compared to what Germany uses, we can see the country is
employing the same instrument, however, there is much needed effort to increase community
participation. Finally, the land management paradigm, shows that the scope of land
management is based on effective land market and efficient land use management, that is land
administration. The basic input for realising good land administration are land policy,
institutional arrangement and land information infrastructure. Therefore, for Kenya to manage
rural and urban development, it needs to focus on these factors of land management paradigm.

14
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