Women, land rights and the environment: the Kenyan experience

Gender neutral statutory law on land and environment and its interplay with customary, religious and other social norms has impacted significantly on women's rights to access land and environmental resources. To change the prevailing conditions, innovative and radical approaches to land and environmental resources' stewardship are required. Rather than focusing on ownership of land for its own sake, we suggest here that roles that individuals play with regard to the land and environmental resources should determine rights to land and environmental resources. Such a focus would shift the locus of land and environmental resources' control from titular male household heads to the labourers and tenders of land who are mainly women

What would it take to realise the promises? protecting women’s rights in the Kenya national land policy of 2009

Standpoint, Land, Labour and Gendered Livelihoods, Feminist Africa Issue 12 (2009). pp. 87-94Land is a critical resource in Kenya, having economic, social, political,environmental and cultural significance. Kenya’s population continues to rely on land for both subsistence and economic activities. In fact, the increase of the population from about 20 million people in the 1960s to about 40 million currently, has put enormous pressure on land. Only a third of Kenya’s land is arable while the rest is arid and semi-arid. With most Kenyans still living off the land, contestations over access to, control over and ownership of land are prevalent.Land is a critical resource in Kenya, having economic, social, political,environmental and cultural significance. Kenya’s population continues to rely on land for both subsistence and economic activities. In fact, the increase of the population from about 20 million people in the 1960s to about 40 million currently, has put enormous pressure on land. Only a third of Kenya’s land is arable while the rest is arid and semi-arid. With most Kenyans still living off the land, contestations over access to, control over and ownership of land are prevalent

Potential Contribution of Drones to Reliability of Kenya’s Land Information System

CA201

Property rights for poverty reduction:

Property rights, Poverty reduction, Hunger, Poverty dynamics, Food policy, food security, Pro-poor growth, Capacity building, Vulnerability, Gender, Multiple use, Devolution,

Governing modern agricultural biotechnology in Kenya : implications for food security

This report reviews governance issues of modern biotechnology. The study used two case studies of transgenic sweet potato and Bt maize to examine how governance issues influence household and national food security in the country. The report argues that for biotechnology to engender food security in Kenya in the context of globalisation and international governance, the national context for biotechnology has to be facilitative. More specifically, there is need to synchronise biotechnology development with national development imperatives taking into account structural limitations that could negate gains made through biotechnology activities. Five key findings emerge from this report. First, alleviating rural poverty and food insecurity in Kenya requires changes at the local, national and international levels because of the inter-connectedness of agricultural systems and development in general. Second, developments in agricultural biotechnology will require slow and careful policy planning and implementation in order to improve food security of smallholders and reduce possible negative and socio-economic impacts of technology. Third, the Kenyan public sector will continue to play an important role in the biotechnology development because this area of research is crucial to the national and local interests. Fourth, the transfer of agricultural biotechnology to developing countries as advocated by international agencies and their national collaborators is a risky undertaking, particularly when it proceeds faster than the capacity of the state to cope with the management of new knowledge. Fifth and finally, while recognising that agricultural biotechnology has potential to alleviate food insecurity in rural Kenya, its programmes must be strongly linked to the interests of smallholders and institutions that support local participation

Multilateral environmental agreements and land and resource rights in Africa

Many African countries are signatories to a number of international and regional environmental treaties. These include the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the World Heritage Convention, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Governments should meet their legal obligations under these treaties in such a way that the land and resource rights of the poor in their countries are not compromised

Entrenching Waste Hierarchy for Sustainable Municipal Solid Waste Management in Kenya

Prioritizing waste prevention, reuse, recycling and recovery of materials and energy over disposal through landfilling, offers the waste hierarchy approach (WHA) a sustainable pathway to the management of municipal solid wastes (MSW) and realization of a circular economy. The concept is now part of the legal framework in some developing countries and its implementation has been credited for addressing waste problems linked to high rates of economic growth and urbanization. Even though Africa Vision 2063 prioritizes improvements in urban waste recycling in the continent, much of the MSW generated on the continent is disposed through landfilling evidencing weak adoption of the WHA. This article contends that because WHA is not adequately incorporated in the current legal framework at national and sub-national levels of government, Kenya is unlikely to achieve a circular economy approach necessary for realizing sustainable waste management. Operationalization of the WHA is impeded by inadequate financing, weak institutional coordination, gaps in private sector and informal actors’ engagement and risks associated with investments in large-scale waste recovery initiatives. It is therefore necessary for Kenya to elaborate the WHA in its legal framework at both national and county level, while ensuring adequate financing, involvement of informal actors, incentivization of private sector and adoption of waste planning procedures