Placing land rights at the heart of development BRIEF HISTORY OF LAND CONFLICTS IN KENYA Kenya Kenyans line up to vote in national elections, December 2007. Much of the violence that followed the elections was linked to long-standing land disputes. Photo: Ian Schuler By Peter Veit MAP INTRODUCTION Kenya drew international attention in 2007 when widespread violence broke out following presidential elections, resulting in the death of 1,300 people and the displacement of as many as 600,000 individuals. Much of the violence was linked to long-standing land disputes. Kenya has endured a long history of land conflicts, dating back to its colonial period when first the Germans and then the British promulgated policies and practices that alienated people from their customary land and pitted one ethnic group against another. These policies were extended after independence. Ethnic divisions, especially over traditional land, were exploited for short-term political ends. Kenya’s Peter Veit is acting Program Director of the new Constitution of 2010, however, provides hope that some historical Institutions and Governance Program at the injustices will be addressed. World Resources Institute. March 2011 KENYA: HISTORY OF LAND CONFLICTS 2 In 1902, the British government granted the private East Africa Syndicate 1,300 km2 of land in the Rift Valley and surrounding highlands to promote white settlement and establish export agriculture. Tea estate in Kericho, Kenya. Photo: Swetawriter TERRITORIAL CLAIMS (BEAC), receiving a royal charter from opened up the interior to white farmers, BY COLONIAL POWERS the British government, and the original missionaries and administrators, and grant to administer the territory. In various government programs. In the early 1800s, Zanzibar was a base 1890, Germany formally handed its for European trade and exploration coastal holdings in Kenya (and all claims Economic development was needed of Africa. On 7 August 1885, German to territory in Uganda) to the British in to pay for the Uganda Railway and warships arrived in Zanzibar, demanding exchange for German control over the make it profitable, and to speed up that Sultan Barghash cede his mainland coast of Tanganyika and other territory. modernization in Britain’s Uganda and territories to the German emperor. At The colonial takeover of East Africa met East Africa Protectorates. In 1902, the the Berlin Conference of 1885, Britain with some strong local resistance. On British government granted the private suggested that the two nations have 1 July 1895, following BEAC financial East Africa Syndicate 1,300 km2 of separate spheres of interest over difficulties, the British revoked BEAC’s land in the Rift Valley and surrounding the territory stretching inland to the charter, proclaimed the East African highlands to promote white settlement Great Lakes. The compromise was Protectorate, and established direct and establish export agriculture. The accepted by Germany, and the British rule over the interior as far west as temperate fertile highlands - the White consul persuaded the Sultan to sign an Lake Naivasha. In 1902, the border was Highlands - became the enclave of white agreement ceding his mainland territory. extended to Uganda. immigrants (some Britons, but mainly This excluded a 16 km-wide strip of land white South Africans) engaged in large- on the Kenya coast, over which Germany To promote development in the scale farming and dependent on African set up a protectorate. In November 1886, neighboring Uganda Protectorate, the laborers who were mainly Kikuyu, but a line was drawn inland of the Sultan’s British built the “Uganda Railway” to also Kalenjn, Luhya, Masaai, and Luo. coastal land to Mount Kilimanjaro and give Uganda access to the sea. The first Settlers with 1,000 British pounds in on to Lake Victoria at latitude 1° S; section of the railway was started in assets could receive 1,000 acres (4 km2) the British sphere of influence was to 1895 and the entire railway—from coastal for free. Many settlers established coffee the north, the German sphere was to Mombasa, the administrative center of plantations, which required expensive the south. the East African Protectorate, to Kisumu machinery, a stable labor force, and on Lake Victoria—was completed in a wait time of four years before the In 1887, the British East Africa 1901. In 1905, Nairobi became the new crops began producing. Other settlers Association, led by Sir William capital of the East Africa Protectorate. established large-scale tea plantations. Mackinnon, claimed concessionary rights Railway extensions, such as the Nairobi- to the Sultan’s strip of coastal land. Thika and Konza-Magadi lines, were Settler agriculture entailed the In 1888, the Association became the constructed to link other towns in the dispossesion of Africans, mainly Kikuyu, Imperial British East Africa Company East African Protectorate. The railways Maasai, and Kalenjin across the Rift KENYA: HISTORY OF LAND CONFLICTS 3 Beginning in 1941, the British embarked on a series of resettlement schemes involving forceful evictions and repatriations of Kikuyu, Maasai, Kalenjin and other tribes, back-and-forth between the central highlands and Rift Valley. The British colonial empire routinely brutalized 90,000 Kenyans during the nationalist Mau-Mau movement from 1952-1960. (Above) Mau Mau prison camp. Photo: The Prisma, UK Valley and Nyanza, Western and Central freehold title. While ideal for securing ETHNIC GROUP LOSSES provinces. In 1897, the British declared the private estates of settlers, all “waste and unoccupied land” in the customary tenure involved a complex During colonial rule, every ethnic group East African Protectorate to be “Crown system of nested and overlapping in the Protectorate experienced land Land” vested in the imperial power. In individual and group rights derived from losses, although some groups lost more 1899, the colonial power declared that kinship relationships that did not lend land than others. By 1934, the 30,000 all land, irrespective of whether it was itself to concepts of absolute individual white settlers in the Protectorate—less occupied or unoccupied, had accrued ownership. As a result, most customary than 0.25% of the total population— to the imperial power simply by reason land was left unregistered and controlled about a third of the arable of assumption of jurisdiction, making vulnerable to appropriation and transfer land. When the settlers arrived, the all land available for alienation to to settlers. central highlands were home to a million white settlers. The British government or more Kikuyu. Many of those displaced considered Africans to be “tenants at the In 1904, the British introduced a moved west into the Rift Valley. When will of the Crown.” policy to settle Africans on “native the settlers also moved west and reserves.” This formed the basis of expropriated this land, the Kikuyu (as well as many Maasai) were made their TENUOUS LAND RIGHTS ethnically defined administrative units, the precursors of today’s districts and tenants. As tensions between “squatter” The British considered the customary locations. Native Lands Trust Boards farmers (about two-thirds of whom tenure arrangements practiced by the were established to administer land in were Kikuyu) and their white landlords majority of Africans to be inconsistent the reserves. However, land reserved for heightened, the settlers began pushing with development and modernization, African use remained Crown Land and the Africans off the land. Beginning in and colonial policy envisioned the available for alienation at any time. 1941, the British embarked on a series of eventual disappearance of traditional resettlement schemes involving forceful systems. By declaring all land to be The Maasai and other groups negotiated evictions and repatriations of Kikuyu, Crown Land, the land rights of Africans “treaties” for the reserves, but these Maasai, Kalenjin and other tribes, back- became highly tenuous. Land was easily too were not capable of protecting land. and-forth between the central highlands alienated from customary systems, In 1938, a clear separation in colonial law and Rift Valley. usually without compensation. was made between Crown Land on which private titles could be granted, and Land losses by the Kikuyu and other The British also established a tenure native reserves which were to be held ethnic groups were exacerbated by system which only accorded recognition in trust for African use. Reserve land, the commercialization of the local to land rights secured by individual however, continued to be alienated. economy, which led to the emergence of a wealthy landowning class of KENYA: HISTORY OF LAND CONFLICTS 4 Kikuyu. Commercialization was spurred in higher potential areas, which were into a Crown Colony, which would bring by the British who (along with the crucial Maasai dry-season grazing lands. them more powers. Except for the settlers) criticized African farming as Sultan’s coastal strip which remained backward and sought to modernize local The ethnic groups on the coast lost their a protectorate, the East African agricultural practices, especially from land through other means. The British Protectorate became a Crown Colony on 1920 to 1945. The British imposed a recognized the claims of the Sultan of 23 July 1920, named the Kenya Colony. number of changes in crop production Zanzibar on his 16-km coastal strip. Only and agrarian techniques, claiming to the Sultan’s “subjects”—mainly those promote conservation and