Learning Exchange: Community Land Protection in East Africa

“Through the Kenya learning exchange, I have witnessed the importance of legal empowerment in the way the community in Kenya safeguard their land by conducting mapping for the community land as well as having bylaws in place. I am proud to be a member of the Global Legal Empowerment Network as it will improve my performance in relation to assisting communities to protect their land. I welcome all to join the network!”
Flora Masoy (Morogoro Paralegal Centre, Tanzania)

“The learning exchange has helped to broaden my knowledge and skills on how best I can remodel and make my programme work better to achieve greater community land protection. Over and above learning new skills in community land protection, most striking is the skills in navigating through the challenges that we face on a daily basis in our programme.”
David Okello (Centre for Public Interest Law, Uganda)

“Namati’s community land protection is a timely intervention – providing communities with tools and a structured approach to securing and protecting land rights. Use of trained paralegals are critical part in implementation of community land protection.”

Jamaldin Yahya (Nubian Rights Forum, Kenya)

“The Namati Community Land Protection learning exchange enabled me to understand the dynamic and challenges in land rights protection. This informs legal empowerment approaches that motivate victims of land rights violation to demand for their land rights.”

Onencan Paolyel (Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation, Uganda)

In October 2016, the Global Legal Empowerment Network and the Namati Community Land Protection Program partnered with the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA), Ogiek People’s Development Program (OPDP), and Kivulini Trust to host a learning exchange.

The focus of the exchange was the community land protection approach for working with communities embodied in the Community Land Protection Facilitator’s Guide and the use of paralegals within that approach. The participants split up into groups with each of the three Kenyan hosts based on the type of communities they worked with in order to make learning more relevant to their work. Some participants were already leading in their community land protection efforts and looking to scale, others were looking to start a program using specific techniques from a legal empowerment approach to community land protection. Site visits and dialogue exchanges allowed participants to leave with valuable information to incorporate in their future work.

For more information about our learning exchanges, please contact exchanges@namati.org, or visit the learning exchange page.

Participants presenting on a panel during opening workshops
Team Tana River group photo during a site visit.
Participants in a working group session during the debrief workshop.
Team Isiolo listening to the Dr. Hussein, Director of their local host organization, Kivulini Trust.
Timothy Yaille and David Okello discussing conflicted land in Isiolo with a local community leader.
Abdi, community land mobilizer, explaining the community negotiation process.
Team Ogiek crossing the bridge to visit the Ogiek community in the Mau forest.
Participants speaking with elders at a community elders meeting.
Flora Masoy in the midst of a discussion with participants.
Resting after hiking up to the Ogiek community in the Mau forest.
Marena Brinkhurst and Tony Kyembwa discuss mapping software.
Group photo with Ogiek community in the Mau forest
Team Tana River after a meeting at government offices.
Office visit to the Ogiek People’s Development Program (OPDP) in Nakuru.
A local community member discussing a local case.
Participants looking over a map of community land.
Group photo of all participants at Brackenhurst conference center in Limuru.

 

Participants

Twenty African organizations were represented at the exchange, hailing from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.