Land tenure is the system of rights and institutions that governs access to and use of land and otherresources. Food security is the state of having secure and sustainable access to sufficient food for anactive and healthy life. Research on both topics has generally proceeded along separate but relatedtracks—the former focusing on the links between access to land, resource use, and income generation;the latter tracing links from income generation to food consumption and nutritional status. Recently, 1property rights (the “building blocks” of land tenure) have received increased attention as policyinstruments that affect access to food, yet the links suggested by such instruments have been thesubject of little empirical research.

The sustainable management of biological diversity is a major concern of the internationanl community which now realises that this diversity is being eroded at an alarming rate due to consumptive uses of species as well as the excessive alteration of habitats owing to human activities such as cultivation, pastoralism and urbanisation.  The increase in human population around the world also accelerates species extinction as such population exerts more pressure on available resources.

Agriculture plays an important role in Kenya’s economy which employs 70% of country’s labor forceor around 10 million people. As an agro-based country, land is one of the most important resources inthe country. Land resource in Kenya faces major challenges particularly due to population growth.This creates pressure on land resources and leads to poor land use practices such as intensification ofcultivation, expansion of cultivated land, overgrazing and harvesting of trees for fuelwood. As theconsequences, the degradation of the environment would finally leads to lower productivity of naturalresources. For smallholder farmers who have high dependency on natural resources, this becomes athreat to their livelihood.

Keumbu Region in Kisii County is experiencing a high rate of land use / cover changes which has affected foodproduction significantly. The agricultural land fragmentations, high population increase and urbanization has led todecrease of agricultural land, food production and impacted on agricultural production and biodiversity an effectwhich has left the rural livelihoods food insecure. Study explored land use /cover changes, food production trendsand main drivers behind deteriorating agricultural land, relationship between population, land use changes andimplications on food production and security.

The issue of the study is land use policy in Kenya.  Especially, the aim is to examine land use policy in Kenya at national and district levels, namely in Taita Taveta District, and, thereby, to provide information about the policy and planning framework of land use in Kenya and Taita Taveta.  The study is a part of the Taita-Project within the Department of Geography in the University of Helsinki.

Land is man‟s most valuable resource, supporting basic and critical needs of food, shelter and business. This is particularly true for Africa where economies heavily rely on agriculture, livestock production, tourism and the exploitation of natural resources.1 In Kenya, dependence on land is evident in the high percentage of persons who rely on agriculture and pastoralism, and in the fact that the country‟s top foreign exchange earners are agriculture (including horticulture) and tourism, both based on land. Indeed, Vision 2030, Kenya‟s overall development blueprint, places a high premium on agriculture and wildlife-based tourism.2 The manner in which land is allocated, accessed and managed is therefore central to Kenya‟s aspirations to alleviate poverty and create wealth.

Despite technological advances in land management (i.e. use, care and improvement) across the world, land degradation not only persists, but also continues to escalate, thus threatening the livelihood of many agriculturally dependent communities.

On the 21st of December 2012 the then Minister of Lands,Hon. James Orengo gazetted the appointment of a TaskForce on the Formulation of the Community Land Billand the Eviction and Resettlement Bill1. After severalconsultations and research the Task Force completedits work in February 2014 and the draft is only awaitingsubmission to the Minister of Lands, Housing and UrbanDevelopment before being presented to Parliament fordiscussion and enactment. This popular version is basedon the final draft developed by the Task Force and whichhas been published for public circulation. The Bill has farreachingimplications for protecting community land rightsand defining the extent of third party rights, includingcompanies interested in exploiting resources on communityland. The next step is for Parliament to enact the law andensure enforcement.

During the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, Kenya endorsed and adopted Agenda 21, which provided the world with potential practical solutions to the ever-pressing problems of the environment and development. Kenya has ratified most of the international agreements, treaties, conventions, and protocols resulting from the first Rio conference, that are considered to be in harmony with the country's plans for sustainable development.

Kenya is the most recent African state to acknowledge customary tenure as producinglawful property rights, not merely rights of occupation and use on government or public lands. Thispaper researches this new legal environment. This promises land security for 6 to 10 million Kenyans,most of who are members of pastoral or other poorer rural communities. Analysis is prefacedwith substantial background on legal trends continentally, but the focus is on Kenya’s CommunityLand Act, 2016, as the framework through which customary holdings are to be identified andregistered. A main conclusion is that while Kenya’s law is positive and even cutting-edge in respects,legal loopholes place communities at risk of their lands not being as secure as promised ahead offormalization, and at risk of losing some of their most valuable lands during the formalization process.This is mainly due to overlapping claims by the national and local government authorities. Politicalwill to apply the law is also weak. The truism that the law is never enough on its own to securesocial change is illustrated. With or without legal protection, the assistance of non-state actors will beneeded to help communities secure their lands under formal collective entitlements. The need forjudicial interpretation of disputed legal provisions may also be required to ensure new constitutionalprinciples are delivered.

The purpose of this document is to complement and deepen Vision 2030 by explaining how its goals will be realised in the specific context of Northern Kenya and the country’s arid and semi-arid lands.  It does not duplicate the main document but should be read alongside it.