Notes On Native Law and Custom in Kenya: I

Extract

It is natural that customary law, as compared to written laws, varies like language from tribe to tribe and that in larger or scattered tribes there are different practices within a tribe itself. Customary legal systems have not been recorded in full. For example, the Turkana who are purely pastoral have no formal land law because grazing and rights to water are common to all members of the tribe. The Ndorobo had transitional rights of hunting and honey-gathering in certain ridges, but have refused to extend such exclusive rights to the cattle of the right-holders, while the Bantu generally have highly developed systems of land tenure in their agricultural areas.