The National Land Commission is Kenya's constitutional anchor for community land rights. For international partners considering engagement with ASAL communities, understanding what the NLC process actually involves — and what it protects against — is not optional background knowledge. It is foundational due diligence.
The history of African land partnerships with international organisations is not uniformly positive. Several high-profile projects — in carbon credits, conservation, and community development — have faced serious criticism for the same pattern of failure: communities were engaged but not consulted, leaders were compensated but communities were not, and agreements were made that communities had no real power to alter once signed.
The consequences have been significant — not just for the communities involved, but for the credibility of the entire sector. International institutional investors and corporate buyers are increasingly demanding that African land projects demonstrate genuine community consent, not just the signature of an elder or a local official. The reputational and legal risks of getting this wrong have grown substantially.
The Laisamis initiative was designed from the outset to address this history directly — not by claiming to be different, but by building governance structures that are legally grounded and institutionally anchored in ways that cannot be easily overridden.
"Community consent is not a checkbox. It is a process — formal, documented, witnessed, and repeatable. The NLC framework is the only process in Kenya that provides this at scale for community land."
The National Land Commission was established under Article 67 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. Its mandate includes the management of public land on behalf of the national and county governments, the recommendation of a national land policy, the investigation of present and historical land injustices, and — critically — the oversight of community land registration under the Community Land Act 2016.
The Community Land Act 2016 created a formal legal framework for communities to register their land as Community Land — owned collectively, managed by elected Community Land Management Committees (CLMCs), and protected by law from unilateral disposal by any individual or sub-group. Before this Act, community land in Kenya existed in a legal grey zone where customary arrangements had limited formal protection and were frequently vulnerable to conversion or appropriation.
The Act changed this fundamentally. Registered community land cannot be alienated, leased, or used for any purpose without a formal resolution of the community, documented by the CLMC, and overseen by the NLC. This is the legal standard that the Laisamis initiative is built on.
In Laisamis Constituency, the NLC has already conducted nine formal sensitisation forums across all six wards between 2024 and 2025. These forums are not informational meetings — they are the beginning of a formal legal process. NLC officers explain community land rights, the registration process, the protections afforded by the Act, and the responsibilities of elected CLMCs. Community members ask questions, raise concerns, and begin the process of understanding what registration will mean for their land.
The next stages of the process involve the formal survey of community land boundaries, the election of CLMC representatives from each ward, the documentation of customary land use and management practices, and ultimately the formal registration of community land titles with the NLC. This process typically takes several years from sensitisation to completion.
The Laisamis initiative is currently between the sensitisation and the formal survey stages. The community process is real and running. It is not a claim being made to attract partners — it is a legal process that has already begun and that the NLC is overseeing.
For a climate technology company, accelerator, or development finance institution considering engagement with Laisamis, the NLC process means several things. First, that any land access agreement will be legally grounded — not dependent on informal arrangements that can be revoked or disputed. Second, that community consent will be genuine and documented — not the signature of a single leader claiming to represent a community they may not fully represent. Third, that governance structures will outlast political cycles — CLMCs are elected bodies with legal mandates, not political appointees who change with elections.
It also means that certain parcels of land are explicitly excluded from any commitment until legal uncertainties are resolved. Approximately 173,700 hectares within the constituency are subject to an active High Court case disputing the conversion of trust land to public land. These parcels are not available for any partnership agreement until the court has ruled. This is not a weakness of the initiative — it is a demonstration of the governance integrity that makes the initiative trustworthy.
A common concern in African land partnerships is the role of political figures. In Laisamis, the approach is explicit and consistent: the Laisamis MP and Marsabit County Governor are engaged as community conveners — they open ward assemblies and endorse the process — but they have no governance authority over the land itself. Decision-making authority rests with the NLC and the Community Land Trust structures being established under the Act.
This distinction matters because it is the capture of land governance by political actors that has undermined several high-profile African land projects. Keeping politicians as conveners — not owners or decision-makers — is a deliberate structural choice, not an oversight.
"Governance integrity is not just ethical — it is commercially valuable. It is what makes agreements durable."
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