LVA Fact Sheet

This fact sheet by Natural Justice analyzes the Land Value (Amendment) Act No. 5 of 2019 in Kenya, arguing that the legislation threatens the constitutional and property rights of marginalized communities by allowing land possession before compensation and adopting a market-value approach for community land valuation.

• The Land Value (Amendment) Act No. 5 of 2019, which became effective on 19 August 2019, allows the government to take possession of compulsorily acquired land before paying compensation, with a payment window of up to one year.
• The Act removes the requirement for Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) for individuals displaced by development projects and fails to specify the format for providing information regarding the location and area of land to be acquired.
• Property rights for unregistered community lands are jeopardized because the requirement to prove ownership via six years of uninterrupted occupation does not account for the itinerant nature of pastoralists, who typically do not stay in one area for more than three months.
• The Act mandates a market-value approach for valuing community land via a Land Value Index, which Natural Justice claims may lead to undervaluation by ignoring non-monetary factors such as emotional attachment, cultural values, and livelihood values.
• Landowners and communities will not receive compensation for inconveniences when land is acquired as a 'matter of urgency,' a term the Act does not define nor provide statutory mitigation measures for.

APA

Natural Justice (n.d.). LVA Fact Sheet. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LVA-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. LVA Fact Sheet. n.d. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LVA-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=LVA Fact Sheet |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LVA-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljusticendlva, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{LVA Fact Sheet}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LVA-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }