The Land Laws Amendment Bill 2024: A Critical Examination of Proposed Changes and Their Implications for Freehold Land Ownership in Kenya.

When you see Kagwanja The Realtor on the streets with his fellow Millennials supporting the bold Gen-Z who are the real muscle behind this #RejectFinanceBill2024, you have to ask yourself why he's doing it. Well let me mention one of the reasons by highlighting the (evil) amendments proposed to be introduced to our land laws by "The Bill".

THE LAND LAWS AMENDMENT BILL, NO. 2 OF 2024

Section 48 of the amendment bill introduces an amendment to the Land Act, no 6 of 2012 by introducing Section 28A which requires valuation of leased land to be conducted by the Cabinet Secretary after every ten years for purposes of determining land rent for the subsequent 10 years. The section states that when government sues you for any rents owed, the fact that they have not given you notice as the lessee, shall be no defense.

Section 49 of the Bill amends section 30 of the Lands Act by taking away the power to sue for rent from the National Lands Commission and giving it to the Cabinet Secretary.

SECTION 51 OF THE BILL introduces a new Section 54A to the Land Act, the most evil of all these amendments which states that "the owner of any freehold land situate within the boundaries of any urban area or city shall pay an annual land levy, equivalent to land rent charged on a comparable leasehold land or property of the same size in the same zone:M; "provided that any owner of freehold land that is put to agricultural use may be exempt from the annual land levy"

This amendment essentially converts freehold land into leasehold land. When you check the Urban areas and Cities Act, it defines an urban area to include a market center. Sections 9 to 10C define town and market center to mean markets with population of 2,000 inhabitants. Almost all market centers in the country fall within this category as they all have at least 2000 people living therein.

Additionally, the powers to delimit the boundaries of a market place are given to a county governor in accordance with section 10B of the Urban areas and Cities Act. It will be quite easy for the government to comprise governors to expand boundaries of the so-called "market-places" to capture almost all freehold land in Kenya.

They are in essence unconstitutionally removing thee freehold land ownership tenure. Freehold land is supposed to be owned absolutely by the owner and only transmitted or alienated through succession or by a sale. It can also be transmitted through compulsory acquisition BUT with adequate compensation.

Speaking of compulsory acquisition, sections 55 to 78 of the Bill amend various sections of the Land act, among them Section 108, 110, 111, 112 and 113 by taking away the powers for inspection and inquiry for compulsory acquisition from the NAtional Lands Commission and giving those powers to the CABINET SECRETARY.

THIS runs the risk of government being biased in the compensation decisions, compensating "well-aligned" individuals at astronomical figures while refusing to compensate others.

Section 78 of the bill introduces a land acquisition committee, appointed by the CABINET SECRETARY to listen to appeals concerning land acquisition decisions made by the CABINET SECRETARY. Essentially, the CS appoints an appellate organ to hear appeals from his own decision (This, in my opinion, is madness)

The same section 78 exempts members of the said Land acquisition committee from personal liability for the decisions they make, no matter how absurd, no matter how unlawful, no matter how unfair. (This is the most absurd thing I've heard in my life)

Going back to the amendment introduced by section 51 of the bill, introducing a SECTION 54A, the one that requires us to pay rent on freehold/ancestral land, they have introduced a possible exemption for agricultural land from paying that levy.

Please note that the provision uses the word "MAY" and not "SHALL". The danger here is that the politicians could potentially exempt themselves from that levy, while requiring poor farmers to pay the levy. If they wanted to exempt all agricultural land, they would have used the word SHALL. However, the bill as currently drafted introduces a levy on freehold land, essentially converting it to LEASEHOLD, through the back door while retaining the potential to exempt their own land from this levy.