4 - Land Inequality and Land Narratives: Theory and Evidence

Summary

Chapter 4 asks why contentious land narratives form between some communities, but not others. The chapter presents a large qualitative dataset collected through case comparisons of settlement schemes and land-buying companies in the Rift Valley and Coast regions. The chapter provides brief summaries of each of these eight case studies to demonstrate how inequality in land rights – or lack thereof – manifests in different contexts. Leveraging comparisons between neighboring communities, the chapter argues that the degree of land rights inequality plays an important role in the formation of contentious land narratives.