Land and conflict: a complicated relationship that could be avoided

Abstract

During heated discussions on land grabbing, the participants at the 2017 Conference on Land Policy underlined the importance of clear laws that govern land in all the countries of the continent. Estimates say that 90 percent of Africa’s land is still undocumented and this cause frequent land invasions in many parts of the continent and fuel conflicts in many communities. Evidences show that disputes related to private sector land and natural resource investments in Africa began when communities were forced to leave their lands. The governments, which are supposed to protect their citizens, and investors must find ways to address the concerns of local people”, said Abraham Ondieki Marita of Transparency International in Kenya. He added that that forced evictions that deny the affected communities the right to own property including land has increased dramatically over the past decade.