Africa has lost one of its great land scholars, and he will be sorely missed. At the time of his death Prof Okoth-Ogendo was participating in a process of rethinking continent-wide perspectives and policies on land, and it is a tragedy that he will not be able to complete this critically important work.  In 1998/99 he provided valuable advice to South Africa's Department of Land Affairs on a draft Land Rights Bill. In 2002 he published an Occasional Paper in the PLAAS series that has been widely cited, and last year he provided a powerful chapter for " Land, Power and Custom", a book on controversies generated by the Communal Land Rights Act that Aninka Claassens and I co-edited. These contributions were immensely helpful for South African debates on tenure reform policy. On a personal note, I always regarded Okoth as one of my 'gurus' on the nature of land rights in Africa, and his theorisation of these has deeply influenced my thinking.

Professor Okoth-Ogendo was always ready to listen to different perspectives and to help others.  He was especially kind, generous and a great mentor to younger scholars.  To me, he was a professor in the true sense of the word and an example to follow: kind, giving, patient, and an intellectual power-house on Kenyan and African land rights issues.  I had the utmost respect for him.  I was just talking to him over the phone and via email over the past couple of weeks in anticipation and planning for our upcoming Maputo workshop, Decentralizing Land, Dispossessing Women?: Recovering Gender Voices and Experiences of Decentralized Land Reform in Africa.  He was scheduled to be a key discussant for several sessions and mentioned including some of the findings and decisions from the AU meeting in Addis into his presentation on women’s participation and voices in customary authorities, local land governance institutions and land administration.  He was looking forward to it, as we were of having him there.  We will miss him immensely in Maputo next week.  And Kenya will miss one if its greatest scholars and land rights advocates.


Ms. Karin Kleinbooi (Researcher, PLAAS)

Dr. Robin Palmer (Global Land Rights Expert, Mokoro Ltd.)
Colleagues at the Land Policy Initiative
May the Almightly God rest his soul in eternal peace.

From:

Dr. Abebe Haile Gabriel (AUC)
abebehg@yahoo.com

Dr. Joan Kagwanja (ECA)
kagwanja.uneca@un.org

Ms. Mary Monyau (AfDB)
M.MONYAU@afdb.org

Judy Adoko
It is terrible news. Prof was one of the very few intellectuals who actually applied his knowledge of context to analyse issues of land policies and laws. I do not know of anyone who will speak so favourably of customary tenure and be listened to.

Real pity he died. I will miss him as a person and as an expert on land.

Prof. Patrick McAuslan (Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London)
I am very sad to hear this news -- very sad indeed. I have known Okoth for over 40 years; he was a student of mine at Dar es Salaam in the early 1960s. I gave enthusiasic references for him which helped get him into Wadham College Oxford -- my old college -- where he read for the BCL -- universally recognised as the scholar's postgraduate law degree. Since he returned to Kenya and took up a post at the Law Faculty of the University of Nairobi, he has had a profound effect on legal scholarship and practice on land issues not just in his own country Kenya and in Africa but around the world. He has been a giant in the field and we have all lost a good friend and a good colleague. It was absolutely typical on him that though he has not been well for some considerable time, he kept on working and contributing to developing and improving land policies in African countries. He will be a great loss to African and world legal scholarship. 

Jolly Josiah Kenan (landNet, Malawi)
Loosing Prof. Okoth-Ogendo is a tragedy to Africa and the world over particularly in the area of customary Land rights.

We can only find solace in the valuable numerous works he has done over the years; which will surely serve as an inspiration to all of us in the land of us in the land sector.


Beauty (ZCIEA)
“Can your spirit rest in internal peace after the sweat and encouragement legacy you left.”

Apolonia (Wadanai Community Development Trust)
Dear Prof. Okoth-Ogendo
Although I never met you but from what I heard from who worked with you, I am 100% sure you were a father of nations at whole at large. We hope whatever you left for will be taken up.
“May your soul Rest in Peace.”

Moshe Tsehlo (Pelum, Lesotho)
I first met the Prof. In Kenya-Machakos at an F.A.O Land Workshop, his presentation was marvelous and I learned a lot. I will miss his energetic way of articulating land issues.
“Rest in Peace the son of Africa”.

M. Banda, G. Malera, V. Kamanga (Malawi SWAL Research Team)
Although we never had an opportunity to meet him, he leaves behind a legacy of great scholarly work and expertise on land rights.
As a team we are inspired to take his work further and contribute to making a difference in the lives of the marginalized especially women.