The Ministry of Lands under Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome on Tuesday highlighted recommendations of the proposed National Land Policy which seeks to introduce the Land Conversation Tax among other regulations.
According to an explainer from the Ministry, the Land Conversion Tax targets Kenyans and investors who seek to use agricultural land for development purposes such as building houses.
The Ministry highlighted that the proposals were part of the measures aimed at addressing the fragmentation of agricultural land which poses a threat to food security.
However, the exact tax rate has not been determined by the government.
"The following measures are proposed; the Ministry of Agriculture in conjunction with the county governments identify and gazette agricultural reserves and ban the subdivision in the reserves
"Regulate permissible developments in such areas through plans; create mandatory buffers (urban-edge) to agricultural reserve lands; introduce Purchase Development Rights and Transfer Development Rights programmes; and, introduce Land Conversion Tax to discourage conversions of agricultural farms to other uses," read the notice in part.
Other major proposals that target the use of land include;
Joint Use of Inherited Agricultural Land
The Ministry is proposing that Kenyans jointly use inherited agricultural land for more productivity. Wahome's Ministry noted that the proposals make more economic sense.
"Family members can voluntarily agree to use family land as a single production unit and share returns based on their initial land sizes. The government to also educate the youth and the public on other forms of inheritance" read the notice in part.
Enforce Zoning
Should the recommendations sail through, the government will be able to zone areas and parcels of land in parts of the country for agricultural production and grazing.
This proposal mostly targets land in rural areas.
Land Ownership
In the new proposals, the government is seeking to enforce the adequate use of land and address the rise of idle land in the country.
"Recognise social security of land tenure based on occupation and associating with land without any interruption rather than title. Security of tenure is, therefore, stronger when based on three pillars i.e. ownership documents, continuous uninterrupted occupation, and continuous use.
"There is a disconnect between the de facto and de jure women's rights to land and property. What is provided in law is not practised. The policy is to monitor women's participation in land governance, and access to and ownership of land while eliminating processes that stereotype and stifle women's access to land and acquisition of land rights," the Ministry explained.
Due Diligence
The Ministry is also proposing the establishment of a due diligence body which will be tasked with helping Kenyans verify details of land before purchase.
Wahome's Ministry explained that the creation of this body would ensure that Kenyans are not duped when making purchases as these cases often end up in court.
Additionally, the Ministry is also seeking to have better dispute resolution mechanisms to settle existing land squabbles.
Digitisation
"On Survey and Mapping, it was noted that there is a low cadastral coverage within the country. There is a need to support the Survey of Kenya to undertake the task by reorganisng the records at the Survey of Kenya as well as the field stations to convert data to digital data and to improve on data storage, access, and cross-referencing of records.
"Fast-tracking the geo-referencing of the general boundary maps so as to ensure all land parcels can have defined coordinate systems, and densification of the CORS network so as to reinforce real-time digital positioning in the field through the use of GNSS technology," read the notice in part.
