By ERIC JUMA
Residents of West Gem have welcomed a proposal by the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to abolish scattered homesteads and embrace clustered settlements to preserve land for agriculture and other productive activities.
The residents said the traditional practice of establishing homesteads on different portions of family land was consuming increasingly scarce agricultural land and making it difficult for families to undertake meaningful development and food production.
Speaking during a stakeholder engagement on agricultural land in Gem, Justo Oluoch, a resident of Malunga, said the practice of dividing family land among sons had become unsustainable due to population growth and shrinking land sizes.
Oluoch said their forefathers had embraced land subdivision when they owned vast tracts of land, but the situation had changed as successive generations inherited increasingly smaller parcels.
“Our grandfathers embraced the culture of dividing land among our fathers because they had vast acreages. With the growing population, however, land has become scarce, making it difficult for one to allocate land to all his sons for homesteads while reserving enough for agriculture,” he said.
He said consolidating fragmented parcels for meaningful agricultural development would be an effective strategy for reversing the trend.
Oluoch cited the case of a farmer in Gem who sold seven acres of unproductive land and was left with only one acre, which he intends to subdivide among his five children.
“If this idea is embraced, selling of land will no longer be necessary in Gem,” he said.
He added that once land is consolidated for agricultural production, landowners should receive a share of the profits generated, while the Government also takes its rightful share.
Raila had previously proposed that communities embrace an urban-type settlement arrangement in which members of a family construct residential houses centrally on a designated portion of land.
Under the proposal, land that would otherwise have been used for scattered homesteads would instead be preserved for agriculture and other development activities.
Raila argued that such settlement patterns had worked well in developed countries and would also make it easier for the Government to provide essential services such as water, electricity, roads and health facilities.
“Urbanisation is the only way to go. Let our elders start promoting the agenda in the community,” Raila said.
The residents also proposed that agricultural land preservation be incorporated into site approval plans.
According to Malunga East resident Frank Otieno, the Lands Department should develop a policy requiring property owners to set aside part of their land for agricultural activities even when constructing residential homes.
“There is no need for a Luo to put up a bungalow on vast land without securing land for agriculture. That can be achieved if a policy emphasising this is put in place,” Otieno said.
The residents also called for proper zoning of land to protect agricultural areas as farmland continues to shrink due to rapid settlement and development.
Dalmas Onyango said there was a need to regulate how land is allocated for commercial, residential and industrial projects to protect food production from unplanned developments.
Onyango said each sub-county should be prioritised according to its agricultural and economic potential.
He said the absence of a clear zoning framework had already taken a toll on farming, with agricultural productivity declining as infrastructure and settlements expand into fertile land.
Renaissance Planning consultant Michael Muli, whose firm was contracted by the Siaya County Government to undertake stakeholder engagement on the preparation of a land subdivision regulation policy, said land fragmentation was among the major challenges affecting agriculture in the county.
Muli said the county government, through the Department of Lands and Urban Planning, had prepared a county spatial plan identifying key challenges affecting the agricultural sector, particularly in Gem Sub-County.
“Land fragmentation has been a menace in this county, and it has led to a decline in agricultural productivity,” Muli said.
He said the stakeholder engagement was aimed at creating awareness among farmers and collecting their views on how agricultural land could be better utilised while developing measures to control unnecessary subdivision.
“So we are in Gem Sub-County to create awareness among farmers with a view to getting their input on how they can best utilise agricultural farmland and come up with ways of preventing land subdivision,” he said.
Muli welcomed proposals from farmers on safeguarding agricultural land, including the adoption of clustered settlements and development to improve agricultural management through smart farming and mechanisation.
He said farmers had also proposed measures to improve livestock production, including the provision of milk coolers for dairy farmers.
Reports by the Kenya Land Alliance indicate that Kenya’s agricultural potential is severely constrained, with only about 17 per cent of the country’s land mass classified as suitable for rain-fed agriculture, while the rest is largely semi-arid or arid.
The country’s agricultural productivity has also been declining over the years, with the shrinking agricultural land caused by unplanned settlements and encroachment identified as one of the factors contributing to the decline.
