Mombasa Lands CECM Amadoh Leads Community-Centered Planning Revolution in Junda Bahati

By Feddy Madebe, Political Writer

MOMBASA — In a demonstration of grassroots governance that prioritizes resident voices over bureaucratic convenience, Mombasa County Executive Committee Member for Lands Amadoh personally led a comprehensive plan validation exercise in Junda Bahati, reinforcing his administration’s commitment to inclusive urban development.

The on-ground engagement, which brought together community members and key county officials, represents the latest chapter in CECM Amadoh’s transformative approach to land management—a model that has earned widespread praise from residents across Mombasa’s diverse neighborhoods.

Building Trust Through Direct Engagement

Accompanied by Chief Officer for Lands Marian Mapenzi and Ardhi Fund Chairman Bishop Ibraheem, CECM Amadoh spent considerable time with Junda Bahati residents, methodically verifying planning details and ensuring that official documents accurately reflect the community’s lived reality.

“We don’t develop plans from air-conditioned offices and impose them on communities,” Amadoh explained during the exercise. “Our responsibility is to walk these streets, listen to these residents, and ensure every development decision serves the people who actually live here.”

This hands-on methodology has become Amadoh’s trademark since assuming leadership of the Lands docket—a stark departure from previous administrations where community consultation often amounted to ceremonial announcements rather than genuine dialogue.

A Track Record of Resident-Focused Reforms

Amadoh’s tenure has been marked by systematic efforts to democratize land administration processes that historically excluded ordinary Mombasa residents from decision-making that directly affected their homes and livelihoods.

Under his leadership, the Lands department has implemented several groundbreaking initiatives that have tangible impact on residents’ daily lives. The digitization of land records has dramatically reduced processing times for title deeds, eliminating the bureaucratic delays that previously forced residents to wait years for documentation. Community validation exercises, like the one conducted in Junda Bahati, have been institutionalized across informal settlements, ensuring planning decisions incorporate local knowledge rather than relying solely on outdated surveys.

The department has also established transparent grievance mechanisms allowing residents to challenge erroneous planning documents without navigating intimidating bureaucratic mazes. Perhaps most significantly, Amadoh has prioritized regularization of informal settlements, working to provide legal security to thousands of families who previously lived under constant threat of arbitrary eviction.

The Junda Bahati Model: Planning With, Not For Communities

The validation exercise in Junda Bahati exemplifies Amadoh’s planning philosophy in action. Rather than presenting residents with finalized plans demanding rubber-stamp approval, the team engaged in detailed verification of boundaries, infrastructure locations, and land use designations.

Residents were invited to identify discrepancies between official plans and ground realities—discrepancies that, if left uncorrected, could have resulted in homes being designated as road reserves or public facilities appearing on private property in official documents.

“CECM Amadoh understands that we know our own neighborhood better than any surveyor who visits once,” noted a Junda Bahati resident leader who participated in the exercise. “He actually listens when we point out errors, and corrections are made on the spot. That’s never happened before.”

The inclusion of Bishop Ibraheem, Chairman of the Ardhi Fund, signals the administration’s recognition that land security extends beyond technical planning to encompass financial accessibility. The Ardhi Fund has been instrumental in helping low-income residents afford the costs associated with land documentation—fees that, while modest by some standards, represent significant barriers for families living on marginal incomes.

Breaking Down Barriers to Land Ownership

Chief Officer Marian Mapenzi, who has worked closely with CECM Amadoh on implementing reforms, emphasized the equity dimensions of the community-centered approach.

“For too long, land administration in Kenya has been a tool of exclusion,” Mapenzi observed. “Wealthy individuals with connections could navigate the system. Ordinary residents faced closed doors and demands for unofficial payments. CECM Amadoh has insisted that every Mombasa resident, regardless of their economic status or political connections, deserves equal access to land services.”

This commitment has translated into concrete policy changes. The Lands department under Amadoh has eliminated numerous informal fees that previously enriched middlemen while impoverishing residents. Processing timelines have been standardized and published, removing the discretionary power that enabled corruption. Customer service centers have been established in neighborhoods rather than requiring all residents to travel to central offices.

Beyond Junda Bahati: County-Wide Impact

While the Junda Bahati exercise garnered attention, it represents just one instance of a systematic approach that Amadoh has rolled out across Mombasa County. Similar validation exercises have been conducted in Mikindani, Bangladesh, Buxton, and numerous other communities where planning documents had not been updated to reflect decades of organic settlement development.

The cumulative effect of these interventions is beginning to transform Mombasa’s land administration landscape. Thousands of families who lived in legal limbo for generations are receiving documentation confirming their rights. Informal settlements are being integrated into official planning frameworks rather than treated as temporary anomalies awaiting bulldozers. Community trust in county land institutions is gradually being rebuilt after years of justified skepticism.

Collaborative Governance in Action

The presence of multiple stakeholders during the Junda Bahati exercise—county executive leadership, technical officers, community representatives, and civil society partners—illustrates Amadoh’s collaborative governance model. Rather than maintaining rigid hierarchies where decisions flow exclusively from top to bottom, his approach creates spaces for horizontal dialogue among diverse actors with different forms of expertise.

Bishop Ibraheem’s participation brought religious and community perspectives that complement technical planning considerations. Residents contributed invaluable local knowledge about drainage patterns, access routes, and social facilities that don’t appear in official surveys. Technical officers provided regulatory frameworks ensuring community preferences could be translated into legally compliant plans.

Looking Forward: Institutionalizing Community-Centered Planning

As the Junda Bahati validation exercise concluded, CECM Amadoh outlined his vision for making community-centered planning the permanent standard rather than an exceptional practice.

“What we’re building here goes beyond individual exercises or specific neighborhoods,” Amadoh stated. “We’re establishing systems and changing institutional culture so that five years from now, ten years from now, Mombasa residents will expect to be consulted, expect their input to matter, and expect land administration to serve them rather than exploit them.”

For Junda Bahati residents who participated in the validation exercise, the immediate benefits are clear: plans that accurately reflect their community, reduced risk of future disputes over boundaries and land use, and confidence that their county government sees them as partners rather than problems to be managed.

For Mombasa County more broadly, CECM Amadoh’s tenure is establishing precedents that future administrations will find difficult to reverse—precedents grounded in the radical notion that people who live on land should have meaningful voice in decisions affecting that land.

As urban centers across Kenya grapple with tensions between formal planning systems and informal settlement realities, Mombasa’s experience under Amadoh’s leadership offers a replicable model: engage communities directly, validate plans collaboratively, eliminate exploitative practices, and build institutions that serve all residents equitably.

The transformation won’t happen overnight, but in communities like Junda Bahati, residents are experiencing tangible changes that demonstrate what’s possible when land administration prioritizes people over procedures.

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