The constitution of Kenya 2010 established a devolved system of governance with 47 County governments. The constitution in schedule four also transfers service delivery in health, water and agriculture sector among other functions to county governments.
The recognition by the Constitution that all land belongs to the people of Kenya and that such land can be held by the people as communities has sought to correct a historical fallacy that has existed in Kenya since the start of the colonial period. The Colonial Government, introduced laws and policies whose effect was to disregard communal approaches to land ownership and use and instead prefer private land tenure arrangements. The justification for this approach was both juridical and economic.
The UNFCCC framework asks countries to include a national REDD+ institutional framework with certain key elements, many of which will draw on existing legal frameworks. For example, as part of their national strategies and action plans (discussed above), countries are requested to address. land tenure issues:1 The importance of land tenure for regulating land use and assigning benefits from REDD+ has been widely noted. Nonetheless, clarifying and then administering land tenure is a complicated issue that presents a challenge for many countries.
The last decade has witnessed a raft of political and legal reforms in Kenya and the efforts have paid dividends. Kenya is experiencing an unprecedented surge in foreign direct investments in varied infrastructure projects. In most cases the projects are situate in rural areas creating a buzz of excitement and igniting opportunities for poverty reduction initiatives directly or indirectly.
This paper explores the concept of benefit sharing in natural resources exploitation in Kenya. The author argues that benefit sharing should be interpreted in its various forms, namely monetary and non-monetary since a narrower conception is likely to create confusion, potential conflict between investors and local communities as well as diminished hopes of improving the livelihoods of communities.
Oil exploitation is relatively a new phenomenon in the Kenyan legal system. The current energy laws, fail to identify and establish a relevant institutional and legislative framework for a natural resource benefits sharing regime. Indigenous Local Communities inhabiting oil rich areas disproportionally forgo their enjoyment of their land, livelihoods, endure environmental degradation, increase pollution and relatively poorer health as compared to the rest f the national population. For the above they ought to be compensated and accorded a percentage benefit over and above other Kenyans.
Kenya is on the road towards commercial exploitation of the Turkana oil resources. Until now, management of benefits from Kenya‟s natural resources is particularly problematic. This assertion is demonstrated by the fact that such benefits have never trickled down to the local people in a very structured way. The failure has led to calls for the putting into place of ways through which natural resource-based benefits should be shared equitably. Picking a cue from the above experiences, Parliament recently published three relevant and interrelated Bills.
The present soil survey is the first in a series of "reconnaissance soil surveys", with a multi-purpose land evaluation. A programme of systematic inventory of the soil and, land resources of the country was initiated by the Kenya Soil Survey in 1972, after strengthening with manpower and funds from the Netherlands Directorate for Development Co-operation through the "Kenya Soil Survey Project", of the then Soil Survey Unit of the National Agricultural Laboratories in Nairobi.
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