CONSULTANCY – REVIEW OF POLICIES AND LAWS ON DIGITIZATION OF LAND TITLING IN MAKUENI COUNTY

1 BACKGROUND

1.1 Habitat for Humanity Kenya

Habitat for Humanity Kenya (HFHK) is among the 70 country affiliates of HFH International. In Kenya, we were registered in 1982 as Non-Governmental Organization, with the goal of enabling low-income families access decent and affordable shelter. In the last 40 years, HFHK has supported more than 56,000 families across 9 counties in Kenya through housing micro-finance and direct construction. Habitat for Humanity considers housing as a long-term, incremental process which builds on cross-sectorial interventions such as construction, water, sanitation, energy, land tenure, and policy change at different levels of governance, actors and regions. Our Business Plan (2020-2025) has outlined four Programmatic Areas namely: Financing for owner-led construction; Settlement-Based Practice; Secure Land Tenure; Disaster Risk Reduction & Response (DR3). We are currently operating in Laikipia, Homabay, Kisumu, Tana River and Machakos

1.2 Makueni County

HFHK is working with the County government of Makueni on land tenure security through the digitization of land titling system. Covering an area of 8,008.7 Km2, Makueni county is situated in the South Eastern part of Kenya lying between Latitude 1º 35´ and 3º 00´ South and Longitude 37º 10´ and 38º 30´ east. The county has a total population of 987,653 spread across the six sub-counties of Makueni, Mbooni, Kibwezi-East, Kibwezi-West, Kaiti and Kilome. Poverty stands at 34.8% and this is most severe amongst the women due to among other things, limited access to and ownership of land and isolation from related economic services that are essential for growth. Land is one of the key factors of production in Makueni County. Security of tenure was not adequate enough to provide the incentive for productive use of land.

Land ownership has been more severe in Makueni County. For more than 75 years, residents lived as squatters in areas such as Mikumboni, Kalembe Raha, Wildlife, Ngai Ndethya, Mbwetwani. By 2013 only 21% of households had secured title deeds. Majority of these landless people were evicted from the land next to Chyulu Hills National Park and the lucky ones ended up in settlement schemes at Kiboko area. Makueni County embarked on mass titling process that saw more people obtaining title deeds leading to about 250,000 titles. This has also necessitated subdivision and succession process in various families which may overstretch the existing land database in the county and lead to backlogs. Digitization of the process could be the only solution to this situation.

Makueni County has already set a target of automating 70% of county government services as outlined in their County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) which is running from 2018 to 2022. The county government aims at enhancing service delivery through modernizing business processes and enhancing electronic interaction between government agencies and increasing citizens’ access to e-government services conveniently at their preferred location and time. Digitization of land records is part of the services prioritized in the automation reforms aimed to fulfill the commitment of doubling the number of households with Title Deeds by 2022. HFH Kenya in partnership with FSD Kenya, is already piloting a Land Information Management System in Makueni County. We already have a database that is being published on a GIS Server and eventually linked to a Public Portal to enable land transactions on mobile phones (e.g. searches, subdivisions, ownership transfer, payment of rates, application for allotments etc). The success of this initiative calls for an enabling regulatory environment and awareness by end users (land owners).

Habitat for Humanity Kenya would also like to support women and other vulnerable groups to secure tenure, by raising awareness on existing land laws and tenure options in Kenya to ensure more families and communities have security of land tenure. This is usually done through advocating for land rights, especially for low-income women, HFH Kenya empowers local communities to confront a key barrier to adequate shelter. HFH Kenya is in the process of implementing an advocacy project in Makueni County that will address issues of land tenure and titling. For effective implementation of the project, it will be important for HFH Kenya to understand the prevailing policy environment as far land ownership and titling are concerned to help in the advocacy process.

2 THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The overall objective of the assignment is to review and identify the operationalization bottlenecks of the relevant laws and policies regarding land ownership, acquisition of land titles and digitization of land titles.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives for this assignment include:

1. To critically identify and review the existing policies, strategies and legislations regarding land ownership and titling.
2. To identify gaps and omissions in the existing policies, strategies and legislations regarding land ownership.
3. To identify the bottlenecks in the operationalization of the laws and policies regarding to land ownership and titling.
4. To undertake gender sensitive analysis to interpret data and information about the general context, policies and structures and the land rights problem from a gender perspective.

3 SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

This consultancy is aiming at reviewing policies and Identification of the bottlenecks and the gaps in the operationalization of the laws and policies regarding to land ownership and titling in Makueni County. The assignment will also give a critical review into the norms and traditions and how they affect the land ownership and titling process, besides gender perspectives will also be reviewed. The findings will then be used to formulate policy briefs and position papers.

4 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

4.1 The consultant will:

1. Provide the proposed methodology to deliver the objectives including the criteria and procedures for the policy analysis.
2. Identify and review all the policies, strategies and legislations regarding land ownership and titling in Makueni County.
3. Identify social, customary and religious norms affecting land ownership and titling in Makueni county.
4. Identify the bottlenecks and the gaps in the operationalization of the laws and policies regarding to land ownership and titling in Makueni County.
5. Present draft findings to HFH Kenya for review and comments.
6. Prepare and present findings to HFH Kenya.
7. Lead the validation process of the policy analysis findings in partnership with HFH Kenya
8. Summarize the policy analysis findings into a policy brief.

4.2 Habitat for Humanity Kenya will:

1. Provide all necessary logistics for the assignment like letters of introduction where necessary.
2. Provide all relevant documents that may be required by the consultant.
3. Organize validation meeting.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Activity, Expected output and Timelines

1. Preparatory meetings – 1 day

2. Desk review/Field study – 12 days

3. Presentation of findings to HFH Kenya for review and comments (Draft report) – 1 day

4. Prepare and present final findings to HFH Kenya (Final report) – 1 day

5. Validation meeting – 1 day

QUALIFICATIONS

The suitable Consultant/s must have the following;

• Master degree or its equivalent in Law, Development Studies, Communication, Public Health, Social Sciences, or any other related field with at least 5 years of experience in working in the land titling and advocacy for security of tenure.
• Proven experience in policy analysis and review.
• Ability to produce well-written reports, exhibiting excellent analytical and communication skills.
• Should have good verbal, analytical, writing, and computer literacy skills.