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Premature end-of-life Vehicles (ELVs) are on the rise in Kenya due to an increase in road accidents, as reported by National Transport and Safety Authority. These premature ELVs are poorly managed, frequently found parked in police station yards, garages, and residential estates, posing risks to public health and environment, thus undermining progress toward sustainable development goals. There have been scattered efforts on their management through policies and legislation, such as the Environmental Management and Coordination Act of 1999; the umbrella law on environment,which remains generic and insufficient in effectively addressing premature ELVs. This article presents the findings of a study conducted to assess the existing management mechanisms of premature ELVs in Nairobi City County. The study employed semi-structured questionnaires administered to households (n = 170) and conducted key informant interviews (n = 88) within relevant agencies in the County. The results show that the most common mechanism for handling premature ELVs is their sale to garages for spare parts sourcing (31%), while the least utilized method invloves selling them for recycling (3%). Furthermore, there exists an opportunity to implement circular economy principles in the management of premature ELVs. Consequently, there is a pressing need for government to develop appropriate policies, legal frameworks, and institutional support to effectively manage premature ELVs.

This paper was presented in the 2021 Conference on Land Policy in Africa held in Kigali, Rwanda, in November 2021. It is based on a three-year study by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI), in partnership with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, to test the efficacy of the application of Kenya's new Community Land Act. The study sites are in Isiolo and Marsabit Counties, both in the Arid and Semi-Arid (ASAL) Northern Kenya. The study results demonstrate the importance of adequate sensitisation of the key actors (government, political and community) at county level and the grass root communities, the use of participatory and inclusive processes to establish the community governance organs and fulfil the statutory requirements provided under this new law. The study also highlights the importance of the use of community champions to ensure the continuous sensitisation of community members, and to to galvanise the communities in the registration and management of their land. Through the study, communities were supported to develop basic tools to guide them in land use planning and investor negotiations. The land use planning guide developed will help the communities to liase with the county government to prepare a land use development plan which is expected to enhance the sustainable use of the community land, while the investor negotiation guide developed will be helpful during negotiations with investors interested in partnering with the communities for investments on their land. The use of the investor guides is expected to inform the preparation of mutually beneficial investor agreements as anticipated under the Community Land Act. It is expected that the lessons from the study, which include: community empowerment, use of participatory inclusive processes, ensuring gender equity in the composition of governance organs and in decision making processes, embracing the youth, use of champions and avoiding the negative impacts of the adjudication of community land will be useful to state and non-state implementers of the new law, and may be used to inform the scaling up implementation countrywide. It is also expected that gaps identified in the new law, such as the management of the inheritance rights of children married outside the community, and those divorced, will inform law review.