The term land encompasses all physical elements bestowed by nature to a specific area or piece of property including the environment, fields, forests, minerals, climate, animals, and bodies and sources of water.
Article 61 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, provides that all land in Kenya belongs to the people of Kenya collectively as a nation, as communities and as individuals. Land can be classified on the basis of ownership as private land, public land and community land.
Private land is land owned by individuals, these include plots and farming lands.
Community land is land that is owned by the community for common uses of locals like the collection of fodder, fruits, nuts, and or medicinal herbs.
A County government shall not sell, dispose, transfer, convert for private purposes, or in any other way, dispose of any unregistered community land, that it is holding in trust on behalf of the community for which it is held.
Public land is land owned by a government. These include parks, wilderness, refuges, underground mineral reserves, marine sanctuaries, historic parks, forests, and seashores.
The Land Act provides that private land may be converted to public use through compulsory acquisition, transfers and surrender or reversion of leasehold interest to the Government after the expiry of a lease.