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Land grabbing has created over 200,000 titles - lobby

The lobby said data from KIPPRA shows that that is the estimated number.

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by SELINA TEYIE

Realtime11 January 2023 - 13:58
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In Summary


  • They decried the rise of land-grabbing cases saying it puts the security tenure of land at risk.
  • Security of tenure is the certainty that a person's rights to land will be recognised by others and protected in cases of specific challenges.
A wall that was brought down by members of the public during the demonstration at the Bohra Primary School in Westlands, Nairobi. They are claiming that part of the school's land has been grabbed by an unknown individual. November 9, 2022

Since independence, there have been over 200,000 land titles created through land grabbing.

This is according to the land rights lobby group the Kenya Land Alliance.

The lobby said that data from the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) shows that that is the estimated number.

They decried the rise of land-grabbing cases saying it puts the security tenure of land at risk.

Security of tenure is the certainty that a person's rights to land will be recognised by others and protected in cases of specific challenges.

“Land grabbing creates tenure insecurity therefore must be stopped,” they said.

They described land grabbing as the privatisation of public land through the illegal allocation of such lands to individuals and corporations, in total disregard for the public interest.

One of the most at-risk public land targeted by land grabbers is public school land.

A recent report dubbed 'A Handbook for Public Schools Land Defenders, Shule Yangu Alliance Campaign 2020' revealed that only 30 per cent of public schools in the country are safe from land grabbers.

"More than 4,100 public schools have formally reported being at risk of being grabbed due to lack of ownership documents," the report reads.

This means 22,648 schools don't have title deeds, while only 9705 have titles.

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