Assessment of local stakeholders’ preferences for foreign land lease design attributes in Kenya: A participatory choice-based survey approach

Global land acquisition and lease investments in developing countries by foreign companies have elicited a lot of controversy and interest in recent literature. Well-structured foreign land leases and investments might offer development benefits to the host countries including opportunities for employment, provision of capital for improvement of infrastructure and stabilization of food prices. However, most foreign land lease deals in Africa are often characterized by secret negotiations and lack of local stakeholder consultations. Consequently, the land deals often result in displacement of land owners and loss of their customary land rights such as grazing and fuel wood access rights. The situation is exacerbated by relatively low monetary compensation offered to the land owners by the foreign investors. In recent years, numerous protests by the excluded stakeholders have resulted to considerable loss of investments and disruption of livelihoods. Against this backdrop, the present study analyzed local community members' preferences for foreign land lease design attributes in coastal Kenya using choice experiment survey data from a random sample of 200 respondents. Results showed that respondents prefer varying payment levels in order to allow design of leases that incorporate the following attributes: short lease duration (up to 15 years); renewable leases after joint negotiations and; provision of formal employment to land owners’ household members. These insights should be incorporated in the design of foreign land leases to promote harmony between land owners and leasers.