Land Reforms and Poiltics in Kenya, 1954–70

Abstract

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.