Jere Backs New Lands and Environment Court, Wants It Working With the Lands Tribunal

Lawyer and former State House press aide Dickson Jere says he supports government's plan for a specialised Lands and Environment Court, but wants to make sure it doesn't just duplicate a body that already exists for the same purpose, the Lands Tribunal.

His concern is that the Tribunal was meant to be the "fast track" for land disputes, but its members sit part-time and aren't available everywhere in the country, limits that have slowed it down even after its powers were recently expanded. A new court, without fixing that, risks adding another layer instead of solving the actual bottleneck.

Jere's bigger point is that most land disputes shouldn't reach court at all. He blames weak administrative processes, especially at council level, where he says some councillors treat land as a political tool tied to their own survival. He also points to the 2016 constitutional amendment that created a Lands Commission, still not operationalised nearly a decade later.

His solution is to properly activate the Lands Commission, tighten council-level processes, and engage directly with chiefs on customary land, before adding more courts to a system that's really an administrative problem in disguise.