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Kenya's National Land Commission Signs Historic Partnership to Secure Community Land Rights for Indigenous Peoples
Gerald Kombo
December 17, 2025
The National Land Commission (NLC) and Community Land Action Now (CLAN!) have signed a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding to protect indigenous land tenure across Kenya, marking a significant shift in how government and grassroots organizations collaborate on land rights.
The five-year agreement, running until April 2027, establishes a formal framework for monitoring Group Ranch transitions to registered Community Land, addressing historical land injustices, and strengthening natural resource management for pastoral, agro-pastoral, and hunter-gatherer communities.
Government and Communities Bridge the Trust Gap
The partnership addresses a critical problem: millions of hectares of community land remain unregistered, leaving indigenous peoples vulnerable to land grabbing and displacement. Traditional top-down government approaches often fail due to lack of local trust, while community activism without state backing rarely produces legal titles.
"This partnership affirms that your customary land rights matter to us. We are not just managing land, but we are securing livelihoods, preserving cultures, protecting ecosystems, and building a more equitable Kenya."
Kabale Tache Arero, Chief Executive Officer of the National Land Commission, emphasized the partnership's significance during the signing ceremony.
Seven Areas of Collaboration Defined
The MOU outlines seven specific areas where NLC and CLAN! will work together:
Co-organizing learning and policy dialogues on land tenure
Supporting implementation of the Land Tenure Facility (LTF) project
Promoting monitoring of land rights across Kenyan counties
Monitoring Group Ranch transitions to Community Land
Developing a Land Rights Monitoring framework
Research and documentation on community land rights
Dispute resolution through Traditional Dispute Resolution (TDR) mechanisms
Interventions on historical land injustices resolutions
Clear Roles Prevent Overlap and Conflict
Unlike typical government-NGO partnerships, this MOU explicitly defines what each party contributes. The National Land Commission will convene technical working groups, mobilize resources, provide data, and ensure processes feed into relevant policies.
CLAN!, which was formed in 2018 and represents indigenous peoples across various Kenyan counties, will identify community resource persons, conduct mapping of community lands, implement interventions in target counties, and monitor ranch transitions on the ground.
Non-Legal Partnership Protects Both Parties
A critical feature of the agreement is Clause 12, which states "No Legal Partnership." This means neither party acts as an agent for the other or can legally bind the other to obligations with third parties.
"This MOU is not legally binding but is meant to express a strong commitment to collaborate."
This structure allows for flexible cooperation while protecting both organizations from liability for each other's actions.
Joint Resource Mobilization Increases Funding
The partnership permits co-financing and joint fundraising, a departure from traditional donor-recipient relationships. Both parties can independently or jointly mobilize resources to fund agreed activities.
"Where possible, CLAN! and other strategic partners will arrive at modalities for complementarities, including co-financing of new initiatives to maximize the impact and efficiency of the interventions."
According to Clause 9 of the MOU, this approach increases the total funding available for land reform initiatives.
Community Voice Meets Constitutional Mandate
Dr. Abubakar Ketemon Lewano, President of CLAN!, emphasized the importance of bringing community voices into policy.
"For indigenous peoples and local communities who represent land as identity, livelihood and heritage, community land has long remained the most vulnerable tenure system. This partnership affirms our shared commitment to give practical effect to the Constitution and the Community Land Act."
The National Land Commission is established under Article 67 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and is charged with managing public land, recommending national land policy, conducting research on land use, investigating historical land injustices, and monitoring land use planning throughout the country.
CLAN! currently represents pastoral, agro-pastoral, settled, and hunter-gatherer/forest communities and is hosted by Chepkitale Indigenous People Development Project (CIPDP) in Kitale, Kenya.
Quarterly Reviews Ensure Accountability
The agreement includes structured oversight mechanisms. Partnership reviews will occur quarterly throughout the relationship, with regular consultations to identify new areas for cooperation. Both organizations commit to documenting successes, challenges, and learning for dissemination to partners and the wider land sector.
"NLC and CLAN! will work jointly to capture the learning and experiences of the partnership and disseminate the findings so they can be used to inform decision-making in the sector, and to feed into wider debate on programme policy and partnership approaches within NLC, and outside NLC."
Historical Context: Building on Previous Success
This is not the first collaboration between NLC and CLAN!. The organizations signed an initial MOU in 2021, which supported communities in filing historical land injustice claims and monitoring community land registrations.
Commissioner Esther Murugi, who chairs the Land Use Planning and Counties committee, noted the partnership's track record:
"We have seen how it works and we have seen the fruits of it. I remember I got to hear about you when we were dealing with the Ogiek communities. And that is a success story."
Implications for Land Reform in Kenya
The partnership model could influence how other constitutional commissions work with civil society organizations. Kenya has over 12 development partners now working with the National Land Commission, led by the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The agreement terminates in April 2027 but may be renewed for successive periods if mutually agreed by both parties in writing. Either party may terminate with 30 days written notice.
The MOU was signed by Hon. Tiyah Galgalo (Chairperson Partnership Committee), Kabale Tache Arero (Chief Executive Officer) for NLC, and Dr. Abubakar Ketemon Lewano (President) and Samante Anne (Chairperson, CLAN! Steering Committee) for CLAN!.
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