Research Report No 115 Karuti Kanyinga RE-DISTRIBUTION FROM ABOVE The Politics of Land Rights and Squatting in Coastal Kenya Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Uppsala 2000 This report was commissioned and produced under the auspices of the Nordic Africa Institute’s programme “The Political and Social Context of Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa”. It is one of a series of reports published on the theme of structural adjustment and socio-economic change in contemporary Africa. Programme Co-ordinator and Series Editor: Adebayo Olukoshi Indexing terms Land tenure Land settlement Resettlement Land rights Kenya Language checking: Elaine Almén ISSN 1104-8425 ISBN 91-7106-464-8 © the author and Nordiska Afrikainstitutet 2000 Printed in Sweden by Motala Grafiska, Motala 2000 Contents Chapter 1. Introducing the “Land Question Complex” ................... 5 The Point of Departure .................................................. 8 Kilifi: An Overview of Its Socio-Economic Profile ........................ 11 Research Sites and Methods ............................................ 17 Chapter 2. Perspectives on the Politics of Land Rights .................. 21 Transformation of Land Tenure Systems ............................... 21 Agrarian Accumulation and Class Formation ........................... 24 Access to Land and Peasant Politics .................................... 26 Chapter 3. Politics of Land Rights in Kenya ............................ 30 The Pre-Colonial Situation ............................................. 30 Evolution of the Land Question ......................................... 33 Phase 1: The Protectorate and Land Appropriation ...................... 33 Phase II: Importation of Alien Laws and Creation of Native Reserves .... 36 Phase III: African Agriculture and Land Tenure Reform .................. 39 Chapter 4. Independence Eve and After ................................ 46 Phase I: The Political Impasse .......................................... 46 Phase II: Freezing the Land Question ................................... 50 Phase III: Thawing the Land Questionv ................................. 51 Continuity in Legal Framework ........................................ 52 Chapter 5. The Coastal Land Question ................................. 56 Creation of Squatters .................................................. 56 The Eve of Independence and Coastal Land Rights ...................... 61 Chapter 6. The “Land Question Complex” in Kilifi ..................... 64 Resettlement Schemes, 1960–1980 ...................................... 66 Post-1980: “Grants from Above” and “Professional Squatters” ............ 71 Public Land on Private Plantations ..................................... 79 Not Single but Multiple Allocations .................................... 87 Contesting Access to Arab and Swahili Land ............................ 94 The Politics of Land Tenure Reform .................................... 98 Individualization on Trust Land ........................................ 99 Individualization on Government Land ................................ 100 Disputes over the Reform ............................................. 102 The Reform, Accumulation and Land Market .......................... 107 Chapter 7. Land Rights, Accumulation and Social Domination ......... 116 Land and Community Politics ......................................... 116 Concluding Remarks: Reformulating the “Land Question Complex” .... 120 References ........................................................... 123 List of Tables Table 1 Kilifi—Type of Land and Agro-Ecological Zones................ 13 Table 2 Percentage Distribution of Households by Holding Size in 1994.. 15 Table 3 Size of Settlement Schemes by Source .......................... 67 Table 4 Progress of Registration of Trust Lands in Kilifi District ........ 100 Table 5 Estimates of Government Land Adjudicated to Squatters (1980–1995) ...................................... 101 Table 6 An Overview of Land Cases in the 1991/1994 Period........... 104 Table 7 Registration of Dealings in Land in Kilifi (1989–94)............. 108 Table 8 An Example of Holding Sizes after Land Adjudication in Malindi110 Chapter 1 Introducing the “Land Question Complex” Until recently, there has been little systematic discussion of the socio-political conditions that shape the Land Question. This is particularly so when it comes to the issues of the control and ownership of land in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the academic interest that has been shown in the Land Question has been concentrated on tenure reform and agriculture production. Especially debated is the issue of whether to transform Africa’s customary tenure systems or not. Some of these discussions, especially those that were published from the 1980s onwards, have been linked to efforts at mitigating the continent’s agrarian crisis. They, therefore, tended to focus more on the interrelationships between tenure changes/regimes and agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (see Migot-Adholla and Bruce, 1994). Interest in issues of governance that began to dominate policy and politi- cal discourses from the late 1980s in the context of Africa’s deepening economic and political crisis also side-stepped questions of access to and control of land in spite of the fact that access to land is an important compo- nent of economics and politics on the continent. Even then, where access and control are discussed, there are clear overtones of “economic reductionism” which seem to becloud the quest for useful insights. In this regard, discussion is particularly focused on the connections between agricultural production and changes in land tenure systems in the framework of the conventional wisdom that the “communal” land tenure systems that are prevalent in much of sub-Saharan Africa are an obstacle to increasing agricultural production. Economic reductionism has resulted in some observers arguing that the transformation of land tenure systems through the introduction of land individualization and titling will “provide investment security” which is necessary for increased agricultural output. This thinking has been reflected, not surprisingly, in the World Bank’s sectoral work and in the structural adjustment programmes it has supported across Africa. The Bank has been supporting titling efforts on the assumption that this will “ensure secure land rights, activate markets and increase agricultural production” (World Bank, 1989; also Platteau, 1992 for a critique of the Bank’s position). Experience has, however, led to a revision of this thinking, with attention shifting to support for naturally-evolving tenure systems rather than interventions for the impo- sition of individualization even in communities with low demands for indi- vidualization (see Platteau 1992; 1996; Bruce, 1993). 6 The Politics of Land Rights and Squatting in Coastal Kenya Map: Kilifi District Kenya Source: Kilifi District Development Plan, 1994–96. Rural Planning Department. Office of the Vice-President and Ministry of Planning and National Development. Introducing the “Land Question Complex” 7 While there is a rich literature on the link between tenure and economic output or performance, there are very few studies on the socio-political aspects of the post-colonial Land Question. Recent attempts (Berry, 1993, and, to some extent, Mamdani, 1996) at elucidating these aspects have focused more on the evolution of the Land Question in the colonial period and appear to be aimed at moralising “customary tenure systems”. They are, nonetheless, welcome efforts at shifting focus away from the “economic reductionist” approach that has for too long dominated discussions on African state-society relations (see, for instance, Bates, 1989). The Land Question needs be seen as one embedded in a dynamic and broad socio-political context (Basset and Crummey, 1993; Berry, 1993) and with a bearing on patterns of social relations in the society. How land is held and, specifically, how access to land is regulated are dimensions which are important to the mode of organisation of the economies and politics of partic- ular social formations (Njeru, 1978; Glazier, 1985). Indeed, recent studies (Berry, 1993; Basset and Crummey, 1993; Mamdani, 1996) are increasingly premised on a recognition that changes in the structure of land ownership amount, essentially, to the re-orientation of an entire social formation. Therefore, any changes to land tenure systems, and particularly in the struc- ture of ownership, must be seen in the context of a wholesale restructuring of the social formation and not just its agrarian system. Of fundamental concern is that demands for the privatization of land ownership have not been accompanied by demands for the reform of agrarian structures and the conditions under which production takes place. The debate has not fully acknowledged that the Land Question is not about issues of pro- duction only; it is also about socio-political relations and the organization of society, and touches on virtually all structures of a given social formation. Even in Kenya where a land reform programme was started in the mid-1950s, the wider socio-political consequences of the reforms have not always been assessed or fully appreciated. Studies of struggles for access to land appear to receive little academic attention as if the Land Question was definitively settled after decolonisation. Yet, the Land Question has been crucial to the evolution of the main events that have shaped the country’s