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Land Reforms and Poiltics in Kenya, 1954–70

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

John W. Harbeson
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Extract

Land has had great prominence in Kenya politics throughout the country's colonial and post-colonial history. The purpose of this article is to advance a preliminary political analysis of the impact of two major land reforms undertaken in Kenya within the last 15 years. One of these, begun during the ‘Mau Mau’ rising in the mid-1950s, enabled Africans to consolidate and gain individual legal titles to their land holdings and subsequently to participate in the production of lucrative cash crops. The second reform enabled Africans to buy land from European farmers, many of whom wished to liquidate their holdings as far as possible before independence occurred in December 1963. Both land reforms are still in progress, for the Government is seeking to maximise the economic productivity of those who have benefited from them. Simultaneously, it is seeking to extend land consolidation and title registration to thousands of farmers who have not yet been affected.

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , August 1971 , pp. 231 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

Page 232 note 1 Clayton, E. S., Agrarian Development in Peasant Economies (New York, 1964), passim.Google Scholar

Page 232 note 2 Robinson, R. E. and Gallagher, J., Africa and the Victorians (London and New York, 1961), passim.Google Scholar

Page 233 note 1 For a discussion, see Huxley, Elizabeth and Perham, Margery, Race and Politics in Kenya (London, 1955 edn.), passim.Google Scholar

Page 233 note 2 Rosberg, C. G. and Nottingham, J., The Myth of Mau Mau: nationalism in Kenya (Stanford and New York, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 234 note 1 For the definitive study, see Sorrenson, M. P. K., Land Reform in the Kikuyu Country (Nairobi, 1967).Google Scholar

Page 234 note 2 See Report of the Committee on African Land Tenure (Nairobi, 1958).Google Scholar

Page 235 note 1 Kenya: Correspondence of the Governor and the Secretary of State on the East Africa Royal Commission on Land and Population in East Africa (London, 1952), p. 8.Google Scholar

Page 236 note 1 Ibid. passim.

Page 237 note 1 A Plan to Intensify the Growth of African Agriculture in Kenya (Nairobi, 1954), p. 10.Google Scholar

Page 237 note 2 The U.C.P. supported the attempt to integrate a few Africans into the Government, but remained a party limited to Europeans. The New Kenya Party, established by Michael Blundell in 1959, was multi-racial in membership.

Page 238 note 1 Speech by Mbotela, Tom, published by the Bureau, Fabian Colonial, Kenya Controversy (London, 1947), p. 11.Google Scholar

Page 239 note 1 Report of the Kenya Constitution Conference held in London in January 1960 (London, 1960).Google Scholar

Page 239 note 2 District, but not national, parties were permitted in time for the 1957 elections.

Page 240 note 1 Based on interviews with representatives of all parties present at the conference; see also Blundell, Michael, So Rough a Wind (London, 1964), pp. 275ff.Google Scholar

Page 240 note 2 Cf. MacLeod's, Iain book review, ‘Blundell's Kenya’, in The Spectator (London),Google Scholar reprinted in Kenya Weekly News (Nairobi), 27 03 1964.Google Scholar

Page 240 note 3 McKenzie, Bruce, Minister for Agriculture, Kenya Legislative Council Debates (Nairobi), LXXXVI, 06 1960, pp. 31ff.Google Scholar

Page 241 note 1 Letter from C. O. Oates, chairman of the Convention of Associations, to Hugh Fraser, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, 5 May 1961.

Page 241 note 2 Report of the Kenya Constitutional Conference, 1962 (London, 1962), pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

Page 243 note 1 Peter Marrian, sometime president of the Kenya National Farmers Unions and also Assistant Minister for Land Settlement and Water Development, is one of the most celebrated examples.

Page 244 note 1 Mboya, Tom, Kenya Legislative Council Debates, LXXVI, 06 1960, pp. 31 ff.Google Scholar

Page 245 note 1 The East African Standard (Nairobi), 26 04 1962.Google Scholar

Page 245 note 2 Oginga Odinga told rallies that Africans should not expect to buy an inch of the ‘White Highlands’.

Page 245 note 3 Paul Ngei, now Minister for Housing, is the leading figure among the Kamba people, one of the larger ethnic communities. Bildad Kaggia is a Kikuyu.

Page 246 note 1 Some of the territory settled by Europeans and subsequently claimed by the Nandi is land to which the Luo historically have also laid claim. Cf. Walter, B. J., ‘The Territorial Expansion and Organization of the Nandi, 1850–1905: a study in political geography’; Ph.D dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1968.Google Scholar

Page 248 note 1 See Harbeson, John W., ‘Nationalism and Nation Building in Kenya: the role of land reform’; Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1970, ch. 6.Google Scholar

Page 248 note 2 Ibid.

Page 249 note 1 The terms of the loan were 10 years for all development items and 30 years for the land. Interest stands at 6½ percent, the prevailing rate in the international money market when the schemes were negotiated.