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Generating, processing and documenting thoughts, knowledge and experiences takes effort and resources. But it helps to preserve today’s experiences, create fresh knowledge and share lessons. It helps to interpret complex theories and procedures for understanding and use by a wider lay audience. Documentation makes it possible for future generations to learn from and improve on the experiences and lessons of our time. This is why we need many voices in the land sector sharing and documenting experiences. We too need more writers in various fields to unpack complex procedures into simple, easy-to-understand narratives in 2019.
And writing is never about extra time. It takes focus and commitment. My editor James Ng’ang’a Mbugua is a good example. Besides his routine duties, we bombard him with volumes of opinion write ups yet still finds time to write. He has written many books; all manner of books! He is a good challenge. And now some of my close colleagues has jumped into the book league. Dr David Nyika, a PhD holder in urban and regional planning, taught me photogrammetry during my undergraduate days. He is also a licensed surveyor. He, along with Dr Winnie Mwangi, a PhD holder in land economics who once served as vice chairperson when I served as chair of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya, partnered to write a helpful book.
This new easy-to-read book entitled Land Administration: Principles and Processes is good read for practitioners and scholars. Masters and PhD students will particularly find it helpful for shaping thoughts and scope for further research. But many others, including practitioners and policymakers and implementers, will find the book useful reference. It helps to bring out the place and role of land administration in development, an area that remains grey to many. I found the definitions of land, land administration, land management, land rights and land tenure very well done. Much as these are documented in many texts, David and Winnie make it quite easy for anyone to appreciate these from a lay perspective. Their experience and diversity practicing and teaching land administration and surveying must have come in handy.
But more marks out the text. Key land sector actors and gatekeepers such as the national and county government, landowners, professionals and professional associations and their respective roles, are profiled. The role of civil society organisations, international agencies and the private sector in land sector processes and management is also discussed! But one wishes that the book found space to mention and discuss the position and role of land commissions.
The chapters that discuss and simplify the otherwise complex land administration processes such as land adjudication, physical planning, surveying, valuation, land allocation and land registration from Kenya’s perspective give good value. The book provides the procedures and challenges that define the land adjudication process in Kenya. It also documents the physical planning process, the applicable standards and also sheds light on short and long term physical development plans, development control and coordination in the context of land administration.
Surveying, the science of measuring man-made and natural features on the earth’s surface for various uses, and its role in land administration for development, is also discussed. The role of surveyors in specialised areas like the production of various kinds of maps, delimitation of boundaries, as expert witnesses in judicial proceedings and in land consolidation and subdivision, is highlighted. And so is valuation, its principles and approaches, and its link to land administration and development! The discussion helps one to appreciate and to figure out the key principles that inform the valuation of property.
Investors and groups who require to be allocated public land will find the chapter on allocation very helpful. Public auctions, tendering and requests for proposals from the public are some of today’s methods of allocating public land. But disadvantaged persons and groups can be targeted for land allocation on grounds such as gender equity, disability, historical injustice or even economic and cultural marginalisation. But where will such land come from? Land banks, which are reserves of land built up through direct purchases from the market, is one such source. Others include land which has been compulsorily acquired, land which has been surrendered back to government for instance when lease terms expire or even land obtained from the degazettement of public reserves like forests and parks. Well-wishers also donate land for the development of public schools and health facilities.
The book also highlights some of the instruments through which one can hold the allocated land rights such as assignments, leaseholds, sub-leases, easements and freeholds. Land registration, the business of officially recording legally recognised interests in land, sits at the end.
In sum, busy folks keen to avoid big technical books on the sub-processes that support land administration, and the roles of the respective stakeholders, will find this a good alternative for quick and easy reference.
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