The Position of Customary Trusts in the Registered Land Act,cap.300 L.o.k

Abstract

Every Society must have law for its good governance. Law being the central concept in a society, the existence of a society is impossible without law. Law as a superstructure does not exist in a vacuum. It is therefore necessary to have laws which have respect and easy obedience by individuals. The laws which reflect the aspirations of the people are easily obeyed and cheap to administer. A good reason does not arise why Legislature should enact a law which is either difficult or impossible to obey. This paper seeks to show that the superimposition of a foreign law will give rise to friction between it and the societal values which happen to be different. Such a law is directed from the aspirations of t~e people. This observation was reached after seeing that great suffering of customary law beneficiaries who had been dispossessed of their ancestral lands by their trustees. The paper deals with customary trusts, how they have been. affected by social economic changes, and the current view of the courts and society on customary trusts. I would like to express my sincere grat", i, l; ,-to my parents for ~heir encouragement throughout my academic life and unrelenting support: I am greatly indebted to my Supervisor, Mr. Kangwana who not only encouraged and read this paper' but also made useful suggestions. At no stage did Mr. Kangwana try to impose his. ideas on me and! for this I am' grateful. Last but not the least, I am indebted to the District Officer Kiharu, Mnranga for discussion in Chapter 3 and some material ; and Mr. L. P. Kamau for taking the pain of typing this dissertation.