Land Matrix Country Profile
Land remains one of the most discussed issues in Kenya. Even more, Land acquisitions either driven by foreign investments or domestic investment needs have continued to polarize opinions. Furthermore the divide in opinions is aroused by the uncertainty of implications of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions to the community. To clarify , most land rights are informal in many situations where the practice of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions exists and include a mixture of private and collective rights, which also include overlapping and mutual rights, and often include mainly common property entities’ rights of use and property.
Large-scale land acquisition is basically the acquisition or long-term lease of large areas of land by investors.
Kenya’s Profile
Land Matrix is an independent global land monitoring initiative. Earlier ,January 2020, they developed a Country profile for Kenya on Large-Scale Land acquisition.In Kenya, the total land area of the country is 58 million hectares (ha), of which only around 10% is classified as arable land. As of January 2020, the Land Matrix had recorded a total of 14 concluded deals in the country, totaling 269 411 ha (see “What is a land deal?”), or just 0.46% of the total land area.
Although this is a relatively small land footprint, these deals may still have significant implications for local communities and indigenous people. In fact majority of deals were for lease or concession and were operational, with the intended use being mostly for sugar cane crops. While eight of the concluded deals are operational, the largest three have been abandoned. The top investor country was Canada by a substantial margin, although the deal was later abandoned, while private companies were the most prevalent investor type.See more on the PDF below
Large-Scale Land Acquisition
For more on Kenya’s land data visithttps://landmatrix.org/country/kenya/ to view interactive maps,chats and other datasets