The Republic of Djibouti is located in the Horn of Africa between longitudes 41°8 ' and 43°4' E and the latitudes 10°9 ' and 12°7' N. It is bordered to north by Eritrea, to south-east by Somalia and to the west by Ethiopia. In the east, the country benefits from a seaside coast divided between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and which extends on more than 372 km. It covers a surface area of 23 200 km² and has an estimated population of 900 000 people according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2014), growing at 2.9% per annum. More than 70% of the population lives in urban areas, with nearly 60% in the capital and about only 16.3 per cent of the population lives in the rural areas.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) is located in the horn of Africa, bordering with Eritrea in the north, Sudan and South Sudan in the west, Somalia and Kenya in the south and Somalia and Djibouti in the east. The total land area is 999,541 Km2 (385,925 sq. miles) and is home to 73 million inhabitants. It covers an area of 1,127,127 square kilometers, of which an estimated 34% is agricultural, 9.6% is arable, an estimated 3.6 is forested, and 48.9% is covered by woodlands and shrubs. Only 4.5% of arable land is irrigated. Protected areas encompass 14% of Ethiopia„s land area. An estimated 15 of Ethiopia„s approximately 80.7 million people live in urban areas, making it one of the least urbanized counties in the world.

After the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991, the Somali Republic splintered into three autonomous regions: South-Central Somalia, Somaliland, and Puntland. South-Central Somalia lacked a formal government from 1991 until August 2012. The appointment of the new federal government in 2012 is encouraging, and the new administration has made many commitments to passing legislation and policy to ensure a stable nation state governed by the rule of law. However, they too have lacked the capacity to draft, pass and implement legislation. Somaliland has functioned independently since 1991, and formally voted to succeed in 2001, though their sovereignty is not recognized by any country.

The Republic of Kenya is located in the Eastern part of the African continent lying between latitudes 5° North and 5° South and between longitudes 34° and 42° East. It is almost bisected by the equator, and shares borders with Ethiopia and South Sudan to the North; Uganda to the West; Tanzania to the South; Somalia to the North East; and the Indian Ocean, the natural boundary to the South Eastern side, with a coastline of about 536 Kilometers.

South Sudan is still haunted by the laws formulated before it‟s secession such as the Unregistered Land Law of 1970. In essence, that law provided that all land that is not registered shall be owned by the state/government. This law went against the interest of the south as all the rural land is not registered and so it would by that law be taken over by the state. Under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011, the people of South Sudan own all the country‟s land and its usage is regulated by the government in accordance with the Constitution and Law. The applicable law in this case is the Land Act of 2009.

The legal framework governing land in Sudan is a complex mix of statutory law and customary law that have evolved over time, with little to no coordination between the two.  The formal laws governing land include colonial era laws and a handful of post-independence statutes relating to the registration of land and its impact on land rights, and the legal framework regarding land access.  Thus, there is no unified legal framework of land tenure across the country.

Uganda is located in East Africa and lies across the equator, about 800 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean.  It lies between 10 29’ South and 40 12’ North latitude, 290 34 East and 350 0’ East longitude.  Uganda is a landlocked country located in East Africa.  It is bordered by Kenya in the East; South Sudan in the North; Democratic Republic of Congo in the West; Tanzania in the South; and Rwanda in South West.  It has a total area of 241,551 square kilometers, of which the land area covers 200,523 square kilometres.  Land is probably the most invaluable asset for the citizens of Uganda.  With more than 80% of the population rural and directly deriving livelihoods through subsistence agriculture, land access, ownership and use are core to economic, social and environmental drivers.  According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics report on the National Population and Housing Census 2014 the total population in 2014 was 34.6 million.