Killing fields of Kampasa – A sympton of the mal-administration of Land in Lusaka

The killing fields of Kampasa over land wrangles are a symptom of our underlying misadministration of Land Administration in Lusaka. It is regrettable that lives must be lost in such a manner at the hands of those who must protect them. It is unacceptable that men in uniform should kill to try and forcibly evict settlers on land. It must be stated that the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) for which we are members through FAO endorsed a document in May 2012 to consider Voluntary Guidelines on responsible Governance of Tenure on Land, Fisheries and Forests. What is instructive about these guidelines as they relate to the current situation in Kampasa is that States are advised not to forcibly evict settlers and also to use proper and legal means to resolve disputes where such arise. When people have settled on a piece of land we must find peaceful means to resolve the conflicts that arise. What happened in Kampasa must be fully investigated and culprits brought to book. However, going forward we need to honestly reflect how Land Administration and management should be undertaken in our country. The happenings in Kampasa and elsewhere where so-called party cadres are able to walk into property which is on title and share and allocate such land is a sign of weak governance of tenure for which we need to address as a country.

[pullquote]We have let lawlessness reign over one important asset of the country.[/pullquote] We have witnessed in other cases such as in Lusaka West, Makeni and elsewhere, the invasion of land by hooligans calling themselves cadres. We have let lawlessness reign over one important asset of the country. Land is a fundamental asset from which all other assets spring. We have focused on copper and mineral as assets without fully addressing that copper and all these minerals come from Land. Why then have we not dealt with the land question adequately? Why, if one can ask, have we allowed ourselves to be overwhelmed by lumpens who invade peoples properties without remorse and conveniently call themselves ruling party cadres? We have further compounded the land administration quagmire by allowing traditional authorities to allocate land without due consideration to land-use planning and design (this is a topic of another day). Peri-urban areas are the worst affected as we see mushrooming of haphazard developments and subdivisions which are not well thought out in the greater scheme of things. How these pass the planning authorities is anyone’s guess.

How the State has unwittingly or helplessly abdicated its responsibility in administering land

The tragedy of all this is that it is not actually the law which is ineffective but rather how we have implemented it to ensure that development takes place in an orderly manner. The path we tread on is one which is slippery and for which we surely must change course from, sooner rather than later.

What is the difficulty in changing course? Why are we not addressing our land administration in clear and non-ambiguous manner so that we remove all the riff-raffs who are meddling in the allocation of land?

To put the question of poor land administration in context we must first define or highlight the function of Land Administration. This will help us to see how the State has unwittingly or helplessly abdicated its responsibility in administering land. Land administration functions involve:

• Land acquisition
• planning
• surveying
• allocation,
• provision of services,
• development monitoring
• collection of rates and ground rent
• collection of whatever tax the State might decide to impose on land.

Since land is emotive there are bound to be disputes arising from the aforementioned functions. Therefore there has to be mechanisms to prevent or mitigate these disputes. If we look at these functions we can see quite clearly that the State has allowed these functions to be done by all sorts of players. If we now look closely at some of the functions of Land Administration we can see quite clearly why we need to change our land administration to avoid the sad incidents of Kampasa.

Land Acquisition

Land Acquisition is necessary for various developmental needs. Land can be acquired from individuals through commercial transactions or through compulsory acquisition if such land is deemed to be necessary for development and if the title holder is unwilling to relinquish it voluntarily. Land can also be acquired from traditional authorities. The law on acquisition of land by State is clear and generally we have not seen any abuse by the state. However land acquisition tends to favor the rich, those with access to finance through their financial muscle tend to dispossess the poor of their land. This is normally done by forced sales from which the poor have no protection. In such cases one can argue that the State fails to protect the rights of the poor as they are left to the vagaries of the market forces. Where there is a general complaint from the people that their land has unfairly been taken from them it is the duty of the state to protect them. What is however disturbing is the illegal land acquisitions or invasions by the so called cadres. Title on land is guaranteed by the state and must as such be protected from being usurped by hooligans. I cannot live in fear of losing my piece of land because of a possible invasion of the all powerful cadres when I hold a Title Deed guaranteed by the State. Land invasions must be nipped in the bud if we are going to see orderly developments in the country.

Land Planning

Land use planning seems to have been relegated to people with no idea about planning. This is especially visible in peri-urban areas where townships(compounds) have grown amorphously without regard to planning Laws. The reason most of us want to live in Rhodespark or Kabulonga is that in these areas land use plans were made professionally back in the day. We admire Woodlands because there are services that we all crave for in a normal civilized society. What we see, however, as we enter any city in the country is testimony of our abdication of our planning responsibilities. Beautiful landscapes such as Zani-Muone have become an eyesore and developers have built houses close to the Great North Road without regard to proper planning. We have now introduced pseudo planners who are able to allocate residential land by pacing with the feet and allocating without consideration of the services that need to be installed. People go to school to learn how land must be designed and allocated! What then happens after this pacing is that after our people have built in these paced plots they begin to demand services which cannot be met immediately by any planning authority because land was just “shared” without any regard to the design aspect of servicing.
[pullquote]The whole of Lusaka south is a sprawling glorified Ghetto[/pullquote] The highest confusion is in the former squatter areas and site service areas. These are sprawling out of control and boundaries of the Housing Areas are no longer observed. Recognising that the demand for land far exceeds supply, government in the mid-70s did promulgate the Housing (statutory and Improvement Areas) Act. This Act was meant to declare areas which were formally squatter areas into Housing Areas and provide some loose planning in these planning areas. What we now see is that the Housing Areas are being extended uncontrollably.

Development Control

There is hardly any development control as planning authorities are overwhelmed by the scale of development taking place in the cities. They are very few building inspectors in all our districts to effectively monitor development and therefore how can we enforce our development plans without such professionals?
Clearly we need to re-consider what is priority for our country. Land Administration has been taken casually although it has a bearing over the provision of basic services such as water and sanitation.

Land Tax

Collection of Land rent and tax can bring sufficient revenue to the treasury. However the administration of tax in the land areas requires regular valuation of properties and determining rates from such valuations. However, there is need for innovative methods and ways to value properties in the sprawling compounds to increase the tax base for the state. Again the failure of the state to consider what must be done in this area is a sign of its helplessness to address fundamental land administration questions

Provision of Services

The whole of Lusaka south is a sprawling glorified Ghetto. From Kamwala South to Chalala we can see beautiful houses built with little or no services provided. Water and Sanitation are critical components of quality of life of the people and such provision is depended on how we manage our land administration.
Accessing such a huge area is through single streets such as Chilimbulu Road creating one of the most stressful traffic jams in the city. Note that it is recognized that a ring road is being built which might ease the pain of accessing the area south of Lusaka.

We can conclude then that if we want to improve the quality of life of our people we need to rethink how we plan, allocate, develop and provide services to the land. This requires a new paradigm in the land allocation system which should be devoid of people who have no inkling of what it takes to administer land. Cadres have no business in administering land and must surely be put in their place!

By Emmanuel Tembo
A freelance Land Administration expert