Section 2 of The Land Act CAP 280: Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
“actual notice” means the notice which a person has personally of a matter or action or document or the
rights and interests of another person;
“adjoining” in relation to parcels of public land, includes parcels of land separated by—
(a) roads;
(b) railways;
(c) watercourses or other natural features of such a character as to be insufficient to prevent the
passage of stock; or
(d) reserves or unallocated public land;
"agriculture or agricultural" has the meaning assigned to it by the Agriculture and Food Authority Act
(Cap. 317);
"alienation of land” means the sale or other disposal of the rights to land;
"alienation of public land" means alienation of land by either the National Government or the County
Government as the case may be, by way of issuance of a letter of allotment by the National Land
Commission to any person to hold the land either under leasehold or freehold tenure;
"allocation of land” means the legal process of granting rights to public land;
“assignee” means a person to whom an assignment is made;
“building” means any structure or erection of any kind whatsoever whether permanent or temporary,
whether movable or immovable and whether completed or uncompleted;
“Cabinet Secretary” means the Cabinet Secretary responsible for matters relating to land;
“certificate of lease” has the meaning assigned to it under the law relating to land registration;
“certificate of title” has the meaning assigned to it under the law relating to land registration;
“charge” means an interest in land securing the payment of money or money’s worth or the fulfillment of
any condition, and includes a subcharge and the instrument creating a charge, including—
(a) an informal charge, which is a written and witnessed undertaking, the clear intention of which is
to charge the chargor’s land with the repayment of money or money’s worth obtained from the
chargee; and
(b) a customary charge which is a type of informal charge whose undertaking has been observed by
a group of people over an indefinite period of time and considered as legal and binding to such
people;
“child” has the meaning assigned to it in Article 260 of the Constitution;
“Commission” means the National Land Commission established by Article 67 of the Constitution;
“community land” has the meaning assigned to it in Article 63 of the Constitution;
“compulsory acquisition” means the power of the State to deprive or acquire any title or other interest in
land for a public purpose subject to prompt payment of compensation;
“corruption” has the meaning assigned to it under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act (Cap.
65);
“county executive committee member” means the county executive committee member responsible for
matters relating to land;
“Court” means the Environment and Land Court established under the Environment and Land Court Act
(Cap. 8D)
“co-tenancy” means the ownership of land by two or more persons in undivided shares and includes joint
tenancy or tenancy in common;
"customary land" means private land on which one or more members of the family have customary rights
of ownership;
“customary land rights” refer to rights conferred by or derived from Kenyan customary law whether
formally recognized by legislation or not;
“dealing” includes disposition and transmission;
“deliver” includes to transmit by post, hand, email, fax or other prescribed medium;
“development” means the carrying out of any building operation, engineering operation, farming
activities or mining operation in, on, under or over land or the making of any change of a substantial
nature in the use of land;
“disposition” means any sale, charge, transfer, grant, partition, exchange, lease, assignment, surrender,
or disclaimer and includes the disclaimer or the creation of an easement, a usufructuary right, or other
servitude or any other interest in a land or a lease and any other act by the owner of land or under a lease
where the owner’s rights over that land or lease are affected or an agreement to undertake any of the
dispositions;
“dwelling house” means any house or part of a house or room used as a separate dwelling in any building
and includes a garden or other premises within the curtilage of and used as a part of the dwelling house;
“easement” means a non-possessory interest in another’s land that allows the holder to use the land to
a particular extent, to require the proprietor to undertake an act relating to the land, or to restrict the
proprietor’s use to a particular extent, and shall not include a profit;
“freehold” means the unlimited right to use and dispose of land in perpetuity subject to the rights of
others and the regulatory powers of the national government, county government and other relevant state
organs;
"full" in relation to compensation for compulsorily acquired land or creation of wayleaves, easements and
public rights of way means the restoration of the value of the land, including improvements thereon, as at
the date of the notice of intention to acquire the land and any other matter provided for in this Act;
“geo-reference” means reference to an object by a specific location either on, above or below the earth’s
surface;
“geo-referenced boundaries” means reference to boundaries of a parcel of land to a specific or unique
location on, above or below the earth surface as defined in the Survey Act (Cap. 299);
“instrument” means a writing, including an enactment which creates or affects legal or equitable
rights and liabilities and includes any covenant or condition expressed in an instrument or implied in a instrument under this Act or any other law relating to land and, except where otherwise provided includes,
any variation of an instrument;
“interest” means a right in or over a land;
“joint tenancy” means a form of concurrent ownership of land where two or more persons each possess
the land simultaneously and have undivided interest in the land under which upon the death of one owner
it is transferred to the surviving owner or owners;
"just compensation" in relation to compulsorily acquired land or creation of wayleaves, easements and
public rights means a form of fair compensation that is assessed and determined through criteria set out
under this Act;
“land” has the meaning assigned to it in Article 260 of the Constitution;
"Land Preservation Order" ban order served under the Agriculture and Food Authority Act (Cap. 317);
"lawful improvements" means improvements which increase or improve the value of land which have
been quantified by a qualified valuer in accordance with all applicable law and includes—
(a) any permanent infrastructural developments including dams, reservoirs, water treatment plants;
(b) any buildings;
(c) any growing commercial trees or shrubs;
(d) any water points, fences and other pastoral infrastructure that may be on the land.
“lease” means the grant, with or without consideration, by the proprietor of land of the right to the
exclusive possession of his or her land, and includes the right so granted and the instrument granting it,
and also includes a sublease but does not include an agreement for lease;
“lessee” means a person to whom a lease is granted and includes a person who has accepted a transfer or
assignment of a lease;
“lessor” means a person by whom a lease is granted and includes a person who has accepted the transfer
or assignment of the reversion of a lease;
“licence” means a permission given by the Commission in respect of public land or proprietor in respect
of private or community land or a lease which allows the licensee to do some act in relation to the land or
the land comprised in the lease which would otherwise be a trespass, but does not include an easement or
a profit;
“management body” means a statutory body, public corporation or a public agency that is authorized by
the Commission to manage reserved land under section 16;
“marriage” means a civil, customary or religious marriage;
“matrimonial home” means any property that is owned or leased by one or both spouses and occupied by
the spouses as their family home;
"national spatial data infrastructure" means the combination of technology, data, institutional
arrangements and people that enables the discovery, evaluation and use of geographical data for users
from all sectors of the economy and the general citizenry'
“partition” means the separation by a formal legal instrument of the shares in land or lease held by
owners in common so that each such owner takes shares free of the rights of the others;
“private land” has the meaning assigned by Article 64 of the Constitution;
"prompt" means within a reasonable time of, and in any case not more than one year after, the taking of
possession of the land by the Commission;
“proprietor” means—
(a) in relation to land or a lease, the person named in the register as the proprietor; and
(b) in relation to a charge of land or a lease, the person named in the register of the land or lease as the
person in whose favour the charge is made;
“public land” has the meaning assigned by Article 62 of the Constitution and includes the coast
foreshore, river, dams lakes and other reserves under the Survey Act (Cap. 299) or under any other law;
“public purposes” means the purposes of—
(a) transportation including roads, canals, highways, railways, bridges, wharves and airports;
(b) public buildings including schools, libraries, hospitals, factories, religious institutions and public
housing;
(c) public utilities for water, sewage, electricity, gas, communication, irrigation and drainage, dams and
reservoirs;
(d) public parks, playgrounds, gardens, sports facilities and cemeteries;
(e) security and defence installations;
(f) settlement of squatters, the poor and landless, and the internally displaced persons; and
(g) any other analogous public purpose;
“Registrar” has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Land Registration Act, (Cap. 300);
“registry” has the meaning assigned to it under the law relating to land registration;
“register of public land” means a register for public land maintained under the law relating to land
registration for the recording of rights and interests in and dispositions of public land;
“restrictive agreement” means an agreement by one owner of land restricting the building on, or the use,
or other enjoyment of land for the benefit of the owner under a land or neighbouring land and includes a
restrictive covenant;
“riparian reserve” means the land adjacent to the ocean, lake, sea, rivers, dams and water courses as
provided under the Survey Act (Cap. 299) or any other written law;
“squatter” means a person who occupies land that legally belongs to another person without that persons
consent;
“State” has the meaning assigned to it under Article 260 of the Constitution;
"state corporation" has the same meaning assigned to it by the State Corporations Act (Cap. 446);
“State organ” has the meaning assigned to it under Article 260 of the Constitution;
"substantial transaction" means a transaction that involves the transfer, leasing or licensing of land to
a local or foreign investor either alone or in a joint venfure to carry out developments in agriculture and
other approved ventures with direct developmental benefits for Kenya through—
(a) a commitment for improving food security for Kenya through technology transfer leading to
innovation, productivity increase and the requirement for a certain minimum percentage of the
crops produced to be sold on local markets;
(b) infrastructural developments from which the public can benefit;
(c) demonstrable strong backward and forward linkages to other industries in Kenya;'
(d) generation of substantial foreign exchange through import substitution and exports;
(e) sustainable agricultural practices and sustainable forest management which can contribute to
addressing climate change concerns;
(f) emphasis is on reference to Kenya and the application of Kenyan law without waiver of any rights of
Kenya.
“tenancy in common” means a form of concurrent ownership of land in which two or more persons
possess the land simultaneously where each person holds an individual, undivided interest in the property
and each party has the right to alienate, or transfer their interest;
“transfer” means the passing of land, a lease or a charge from one party to another by an act of the parties
and not by operation of the law and includes the instrument by which such passing is effected;
“transferee” means a person who receives the land, lease or charge passed by an act of transfer;
“transferor” means the person who passes the land, lease or charge by an act of transfer;
“transmission” means the passing of land, a lease or a charge from one person to another by operation of
law on death or insolvency or otherwise howsoever, and includes the compulsory acquisition of land under
any written law;
“trustee” includes personal representative;
"Tribunal" means the Land Acquisition Tribunal established under Part VIIIA"
“valuable consideration” includes marriage, but does not include a nominal consideration; and
“valuer” means a valuer registered and licensed to practice as a valuer in accordance with the Valuers Act
(Cap. 532);
“unexhausted improvement” means anything or any quality permanently attached to the land directly
resulting from the expenditure of capital or labour by an owner or any person acting on the owner’s behalf
and increasing the productive capacity, the utility, the sustainability of its environmental quality and
includes trees, standing crops and growing produce whether of an agricultural or horticultural nature.
“actual notice” means the notice which a person has personally of a matter or action or document or the
rights and interests of another person;
“adjoining” in relation to parcels of public land, includes parcels of land separated by—
(a) roads;
(b) railways;
(c) watercourses or other natural features of such a character as to be insufficient to prevent the
passage of stock; or
(d) reserves or unallocated public land;
"agriculture or agricultural" has the meaning assigned to it by the Agriculture and Food Authority Act
(Cap. 317);
"alienation of land” means the sale or other disposal of the rights to land;
"alienation of public land" means alienation of land by either the National Government or the County
Government as the case may be, by way of issuance of a letter of allotment by the National Land
Commission to any person to hold the land either under leasehold or freehold tenure;
"allocation of land” means the legal process of granting rights to public land;
“assignee” means a person to whom an assignment is made;
“building” means any structure or erection of any kind whatsoever whether permanent or temporary,
whether movable or immovable and whether completed or uncompleted;
“Cabinet Secretary” means the Cabinet Secretary responsible for matters relating to land;
“certificate of lease” has the meaning assigned to it under the law relating to land registration;
“certificate of title” has the meaning assigned to it under the law relating to land registration;
“charge” means an interest in land securing the payment of money or money’s worth or the fulfillment of
any condition, and includes a subcharge and the instrument creating a charge, including—
(a) an informal charge, which is a written and witnessed undertaking, the clear intention of which is
to charge the chargor’s land with the repayment of money or money’s worth obtained from the
chargee; and
(b) a customary charge which is a type of informal charge whose undertaking has been observed by
a group of people over an indefinite period of time and considered as legal and binding to such
people;
“child” has the meaning assigned to it in Article 260 of the Constitution;
“Commission” means the National Land Commission established by Article 67 of the Constitution;
“community land” has the meaning assigned to it in Article 63 of the Constitution;
“compulsory acquisition” means the power of the State to deprive or acquire any title or other interest in
land for a public purpose subject to prompt payment of compensation;
“corruption” has the meaning assigned to it under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act (Cap.
65);
“county executive committee member” means the county executive committee member responsible for
matters relating to land;
“Court” means the Environment and Land Court established under the Environment and Land Court Act
(Cap. 8D)
“co-tenancy” means the ownership of land by two or more persons in undivided shares and includes joint
tenancy or tenancy in common;
"customary land" means private land on which one or more members of the family have customary rights
of ownership;
“customary land rights” refer to rights conferred by or derived from Kenyan customary law whether
formally recognized by legislation or not;
“dealing” includes disposition and transmission;
“deliver” includes to transmit by post, hand, email, fax or other prescribed medium;
“development” means the carrying out of any building operation, engineering operation, farming
activities or mining operation in, on, under or over land or the making of any change of a substantial
nature in the use of land;
“disposition” means any sale, charge, transfer, grant, partition, exchange, lease, assignment, surrender,
or disclaimer and includes the disclaimer or the creation of an easement, a usufructuary right, or other
servitude or any other interest in a land or a lease and any other act by the owner of land or under a lease
where the owner’s rights over that land or lease are affected or an agreement to undertake any of the
dispositions;
“dwelling house” means any house or part of a house or room used as a separate dwelling in any building
and includes a garden or other premises within the curtilage of and used as a part of the dwelling house;
“easement” means a non-possessory interest in another’s land that allows the holder to use the land to
a particular extent, to require the proprietor to undertake an act relating to the land, or to restrict the
proprietor’s use to a particular extent, and shall not include a profit;
“freehold” means the unlimited right to use and dispose of land in perpetuity subject to the rights of
others and the regulatory powers of the national government, county government and other relevant state
organs;
"full" in relation to compensation for compulsorily acquired land or creation of wayleaves, easements and
public rights of way means the restoration of the value of the land, including improvements thereon, as at
the date of the notice of intention to acquire the land and any other matter provided for in this Act;
“geo-reference” means reference to an object by a specific location either on, above or below the earth’s
surface;
“geo-referenced boundaries” means reference to boundaries of a parcel of land to a specific or unique
location on, above or below the earth surface as defined in the Survey Act (Cap. 299);
“instrument” means a writing, including an enactment which creates or affects legal or equitable
rights and liabilities and includes any covenant or condition expressed in an instrument or implied in a instrument under this Act or any other law relating to land and, except where otherwise provided includes,
any variation of an instrument;
“interest” means a right in or over a land;
“joint tenancy” means a form of concurrent ownership of land where two or more persons each possess
the land simultaneously and have undivided interest in the land under which upon the death of one owner
it is transferred to the surviving owner or owners;
"just compensation" in relation to compulsorily acquired land or creation of wayleaves, easements and
public rights means a form of fair compensation that is assessed and determined through criteria set out
under this Act;
“land” has the meaning assigned to it in Article 260 of the Constitution;
"Land Preservation Order" ban order served under the Agriculture and Food Authority Act (Cap. 317);
"lawful improvements" means improvements which increase or improve the value of land which have
been quantified by a qualified valuer in accordance with all applicable law and includes—
(a) any permanent infrastructural developments including dams, reservoirs, water treatment plants;
(b) any buildings;
(c) any growing commercial trees or shrubs;
(d) any water points, fences and other pastoral infrastructure that may be on the land.
“lease” means the grant, with or without consideration, by the proprietor of land of the right to the
exclusive possession of his or her land, and includes the right so granted and the instrument granting it,
and also includes a sublease but does not include an agreement for lease;
“lessee” means a person to whom a lease is granted and includes a person who has accepted a transfer or
assignment of a lease;
“lessor” means a person by whom a lease is granted and includes a person who has accepted the transfer
or assignment of the reversion of a lease;
“licence” means a permission given by the Commission in respect of public land or proprietor in respect
of private or community land or a lease which allows the licensee to do some act in relation to the land or
the land comprised in the lease which would otherwise be a trespass, but does not include an easement or
a profit;
“management body” means a statutory body, public corporation or a public agency that is authorized by
the Commission to manage reserved land under section 16;
“marriage” means a civil, customary or religious marriage;
“matrimonial home” means any property that is owned or leased by one or both spouses and occupied by
the spouses as their family home;
"national spatial data infrastructure" means the combination of technology, data, institutional
arrangements and people that enables the discovery, evaluation and use of geographical data for users
from all sectors of the economy and the general citizenry'
“partition” means the separation by a formal legal instrument of the shares in land or lease held by
owners in common so that each such owner takes shares free of the rights of the others;
“private land” has the meaning assigned by Article 64 of the Constitution;
"prompt" means within a reasonable time of, and in any case not more than one year after, the taking of
possession of the land by the Commission;
“proprietor” means—
(a) in relation to land or a lease, the person named in the register as the proprietor; and
(b) in relation to a charge of land or a lease, the person named in the register of the land or lease as the
person in whose favour the charge is made;
“public land” has the meaning assigned by Article 62 of the Constitution and includes the coast
foreshore, river, dams lakes and other reserves under the Survey Act (Cap. 299) or under any other law;
“public purposes” means the purposes of—
(a) transportation including roads, canals, highways, railways, bridges, wharves and airports;
(b) public buildings including schools, libraries, hospitals, factories, religious institutions and public
housing;
(c) public utilities for water, sewage, electricity, gas, communication, irrigation and drainage, dams and
reservoirs;
(d) public parks, playgrounds, gardens, sports facilities and cemeteries;
(e) security and defence installations;
(f) settlement of squatters, the poor and landless, and the internally displaced persons; and
(g) any other analogous public purpose;
“Registrar” has the meaning assigned to it under section 2 of the Land Registration Act, (Cap. 300);
“registry” has the meaning assigned to it under the law relating to land registration;
“register of public land” means a register for public land maintained under the law relating to land
registration for the recording of rights and interests in and dispositions of public land;
“restrictive agreement” means an agreement by one owner of land restricting the building on, or the use,
or other enjoyment of land for the benefit of the owner under a land or neighbouring land and includes a
restrictive covenant;
“riparian reserve” means the land adjacent to the ocean, lake, sea, rivers, dams and water courses as
provided under the Survey Act (Cap. 299) or any other written law;
“squatter” means a person who occupies land that legally belongs to another person without that persons
consent;
“State” has the meaning assigned to it under Article 260 of the Constitution;
"state corporation" has the same meaning assigned to it by the State Corporations Act (Cap. 446);
“State organ” has the meaning assigned to it under Article 260 of the Constitution;
"substantial transaction" means a transaction that involves the transfer, leasing or licensing of land to
a local or foreign investor either alone or in a joint venfure to carry out developments in agriculture and
other approved ventures with direct developmental benefits for Kenya through—
(a) a commitment for improving food security for Kenya through technology transfer leading to
innovation, productivity increase and the requirement for a certain minimum percentage of the
crops produced to be sold on local markets;
(b) infrastructural developments from which the public can benefit;
(c) demonstrable strong backward and forward linkages to other industries in Kenya;'
(d) generation of substantial foreign exchange through import substitution and exports;
(e) sustainable agricultural practices and sustainable forest management which can contribute to
addressing climate change concerns;
(f) emphasis is on reference to Kenya and the application of Kenyan law without waiver of any rights of
Kenya.
“tenancy in common” means a form of concurrent ownership of land in which two or more persons
possess the land simultaneously where each person holds an individual, undivided interest in the property
and each party has the right to alienate, or transfer their interest;
“transfer” means the passing of land, a lease or a charge from one party to another by an act of the parties
and not by operation of the law and includes the instrument by which such passing is effected;
“transferee” means a person who receives the land, lease or charge passed by an act of transfer;
“transferor” means the person who passes the land, lease or charge by an act of transfer;
“transmission” means the passing of land, a lease or a charge from one person to another by operation of
law on death or insolvency or otherwise howsoever, and includes the compulsory acquisition of land under
any written law;
“trustee” includes personal representative;
"Tribunal" means the Land Acquisition Tribunal established under Part VIIIA"
“valuable consideration” includes marriage, but does not include a nominal consideration; and
“valuer” means a valuer registered and licensed to practice as a valuer in accordance with the Valuers Act
(Cap. 532);
“unexhausted improvement” means anything or any quality permanently attached to the land directly
resulting from the expenditure of capital or labour by an owner or any person acting on the owner’s behalf
and increasing the productive capacity, the utility, the sustainability of its environmental quality and
includes trees, standing crops and growing produce whether of an agricultural or horticultural nature.
Check the current authoritative text and amendment history before relying on this provision.