Factors Influencing the Implementation of the Land Adjudication Strategy in Igembe North Sub-County

Abstract

Although the implementation of the land adjudication strategy has resulted in the registration of 8.1 million hectares of land in Kenya, large areas of the country remain un-adjudicated. Igembe Sub-county in Meru County is one area where implementation of the land adjudication strategy started in 1966 and since then it has not been completed. This study was conducted to determine the factors influencing the implementation of the land adjudication strategy in Igembe No11h Sub-County of Meru County. The study was guided by four objectives and data was collected to answer questions on what caused the delay in the implementation of the land adjudication strategy in the study area. The independent variables were land disputes, education, technology and politics while the dependant variable was the implementation of the land adjudication strategy. Four null hypotheses were tested to inform on the decision process of accepting or rejecting the influence of each of the four independent variables on the dependent variable. The research design was a descriptive survey. The study selected both registered and unregistered ( ongoing) sections, The registered sections were Ntunene and Antuambui while the ongoing sections were Ndoleli/Athiru/Ruujine, Akiriangondu C, Antubetwe/Kiongo and Akiriangondu A. The study targeted people with land in both the registered and ongoing sections in lgembe North Sub-county whose names appeared in the records held by the District land adjudication and settlement officer and District Land registrar, Maua in the Meru county, Kenya. The accessible population was made up of 400 land-owners. Stratified random sampling was used to identify 6 out of the 16 sections (2 from the registered and 4 from ongoing sections) that were the focus of the study. Simple random sampling was used to identify respondents in the six selected sections whose sample size consisted of 120 land-owners. For tabulation and satisfactory analysis, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was used. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis techniques were used in order to test the four Hypotheses. The study established that land disputes and politics were the most important factors that influenced implementation of the land adjudication strategy. Education and technology did not seem to have a great influence on the implementation of land adjudication strategy in Igembe North Sub-County. The study recommends that the government gives priority to the completion of the land adjudication process so that land-owners obtain their title deeds, the National Land Commission should come up with alternative ways of dispute resolution and it (the NLC) should be independent and not entertain political interference in discharging its constitutional mandate.