Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has announced he will take legal action to block implementation of the National Land Commission (Amendment) Act, 2025, a law he says weakens Kenya’s constitutional framework on land governance and historical justice.
The senator argues that the amendment unlawfully reduces the National Land Commission’s (NLC) authority to investigate and review land allocations made before the 2010 Constitution.
In a statement posted on X, Omtatah said Parliament’s decision to introduce new timelines for land reviews is “a direct attack” on constitutional independence granted to commissions under Article 67(2)(e).
Under the new law, the NLC must conclude reviews of public land grants made between 1895 and 2010 within five years.
Determinations on restitution, compensation, or revocation of irregular titles must be completed within one year and implemented within three.
Omtatah claims this provision unlawfully restricts a mandate that the Constitution leaves open-ended.
He described the amendment as a deliberate attempt to preempt a High Court ruling in his ongoing case, Constitutional Petition No. E349 of 2021, whose judgment is scheduled for November 28, 2025.
The case challenges an earlier 10-year limit imposed on the same NLC mandate. Omtatah now plans to amend his pleadings to include the 2025 law, which he intends to have declared unconstitutional and void.
“The National Assembly cannot amend the Constitution through ordinary legislation or use lawmaking to erode the independence of constitutional bodies,” the senator stated.
He said the amendment “betrays the spirit of land justice” and undermines efforts to address unresolved land disputes dating back to the colonial era.
Land governance remains one of Kenya’s most contentious issues, with the National Land Commission estimating that over 1.3 million land-related complaints have been filed since its establishment in 2012.
Many cases involve historical injustices, including irregular allocations of public land and displacement during the pre-independence and post-independence periods.
Omtatah’s petition is expected to reignite national debate over Parliament’s oversight of independent commissions and the unresolved question of how long the NLC should take to complete its review of historical land cases.