There are discordant if not too generalsed voices on the land issue. "Land is an issue in the post-poll violence", some have posited.

"Land reform is urgently needed in Kenya", others assert. "The land issue should be put on the negotiation table", comes in more advise. Sounds good but just what does it mean in actionable terms?

Generalities will not help the land agenda in Kenya. We need a good road map forward. We should not tamper with the land issue adhoc then get bogged down economically "Zimbabwe style" for years.Land is a touchy and serious matter, quite fundamental to our economic growth and social cohesion.

We must therefore approach it professionally and systematically; isolate and address the salient issues away from sensation and politics. The politics of land is usually populist and self-serving but highly injurious to co-existence and our economy. That's not the way to go.

Is it for instance true or not that Kenya was colonized? And where did the settlers obtain their land from? Not in parts of Coast, Eastern, Central and the Rift Valley Provinces...all parts of this country? Did they acquire the land within a vacuum or they displaced local communities?

At the Coast, had the Sultanate of Zanzibar not acquired and issued ownership certificates along the 10 mile coastal strip at the expense of locals, something later upheld by the colonial and our independent governments? Was this a case of Kenyans against Kenyans or outsiders against Kenyans? These historical facts cannot be wished away and form the basis of some of the historical injustices we wish to resolve.

Did the "Mau Mau" war happen or did it not? Were people displaced? Were they resettled? Who were and who weren't? Why? And where were the settlement schemes, how were they acquired and at what terms was allocation done? Contrary to our customary practices, the colonial government established highly elitist and centralised land institutions to manage our land. They later became quite bureaucratic, ineffective and corrupt.

Haven't they irregularly allocated land at the expense of public needs and communities as we watched? Has not rapid urbanisation pushed people into over-crowded and unserviced slum settlements? Has the Government and local authorities not occasionally evicted people from forests, squatter settlements and slums?

The tribal clashes displaced yet others! Where do all these people go? Where will they live? Is not it true that in the last 40 years, land has been treated as a commodity to be bought and sold to anyone countrywide irrespective of places of origin?

Look at places like Ngong, Kiserian, Nakuru and Trans Nzoia. Hasn't population growth not challenged our land bearing capacity with time? Anyone with a snap answer to all these challenges? Any politician?

These are hard issues. Part of the complex land question in Kenya. It won't be easy to address. Luckily, in the last four years, very good seed work had been done on this through the national land policy formulation process. A very good document, the best that Kenya ever had to guide the holistic and systematic resolution of the issue, was produced. This document, the draft national land policy, awaits parliamentary approval.

Indeed, it has sections that address salient issues like historical injustices and internally displaced persons. What more do we ask? In my view, only political will is desired to approve and implement the provisions of this document.

This will include the establishment of the proposed new institutions, new legal framework and a work plan to implement the policy recommendations. Let us use it for informed discussions. Let us avoid generalities and sensationalism on the subject.