GRADUATE STUDENT AT TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

GERMANY

SOLOMON NJOROGE NJOGU, a Kenyan national, is a dedicated surveyor and a software developer in land administration. He is pursuing his MS in land management and land tenure at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Solomon completed a BSc in geomatics engineering and GIS from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya; he also undertook postgraduate training in programming and mobile-application development with Nokia East Africa.

At the UN Habitat Through Global Land Tool Network in Nairobi, Solomon contributed to new thinking in land administration and the paradigm shift in land-tools development, specifically for the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) and its implementation in several countries. He interacted with and built capacity for hundreds of young surveyors globally and other experts in land administration, contributing to a new vision for surveyors as managers and decision-makers beyond being technical experts.

Solomon says, “It’s a daunting task to be a change agent in a system too rigid to change, but strong will and determination (beyond personal gain) for a greater good is what keeps me going. It’s very difficult to be a modern surveyor in my country where the system is quite conservative and impenetrable. However, I am a strong advocate for technology, especially along the current trends of fit-for-purpose approaches in land administration.” Solomon is researching technological and legal opportunities for implementing new, bottom-up approaches in land management as an alternative to current complex, mainstream systems in Kenya.