Digitalising Commons

Digitalising commons: transformative technologies for land justice

We are very excited to announce that the project proposal ‘Digitalising commons: transformative technologies for land justice’, has been selected for funding by the UCL Research Progression Award. The aim of this project is to co-create information systems that address the tensions between land justice and the digital technologies designed for land administrations in Kajiado, Kenya.  

As a large agricultural producer and rapidly urbanising country, Kenya’s successful economic and urban growth is highly dependent on its successful land management. For individuals, land registration provides tenure security, the opportunity to invest in economic practices, and access to financial markets. Hence, land is the foundation for potential growth for Kenyans and Kenya.  

Despite national and multilateral efforts to improve land governance, including surveying unmapped lands, creating a digital land information system, and establishing geo-information labs, Kenya's land sector struggles with conflict, corruption, and mismanagement. This dampens growth potential on a national scale, as well as the ability of individuals to invest in housing and economic activity. This hits women, ethnic minorities, and rural residents the hardest. Moreover, the information infrastructures available to the state prioritise the registration of private property over communal property and rarely acknowledge the presence of informalised communities or Indigenous group ranches. As these categories encompass the majority of Kenya’s land and population, this raises the question of for whom these land information management systems are designed. 

Using co-creation methodologies, this project will aim to identify the affordances of the digital technologies for land administration developed by the state and explore potential design principles to overcome the injustices in Kenya’s land sector. In doing so, it will address important and persisting questions in land administration, exploring how digitalisation processes can move away from objectivity and universal rationality to accommodate the land ownership structures and values of communities. Collaborating with Maasai communities and civil society organisations Nareto Latia and Kenya Land Alliance, as well as the British Institute in Eastern Africa, the project aims to support their advocacy work towards the consolidation of land rights for Indigenous communities in Kenya.   

More news to follow soon!