Land Reforms and Pastoralists’ Land Access: Implementing Community Land Law in Kenya

Abstract

Access to land is an indispensable right of pastoralists. It is the source of their livelihoods and the basis of their long-term resilience towards external stresses associated with climate change. The rights to land by pastoralist communities reinforces this resilience because individual members enjoy the rights collectively, as community land rights. They face limited or no restrictions of access brought about by individualization of community land. However, there are emerging trends towards formalization of communal land rights. In Kenya, the community land law now protects community land by giving communities the collective rights of ownership and access. How this has impacted on rights of access among individual pastoralists and groups of pastoralists remain an issue of scholarly debate. Whether formalization of community rights reinforces or changes existing forms of access by exerting inclusion or exclusion of access to land is of interest because it affects communities’ livelihoods directly. This thesis contributes to the growing studies on formalization of communal rights of access to land. Drawing on the Theory of Access, Decentralization and Resilience, it focuses on the relationship between law-based land rights and access for community land among pastoralists. The findings highlight the challenges of access to pastoralists’ community lands because of formalization of community land through the Community Land Act 2016 and reveal tension between formal laws and customary tenure and new forms of exclusion based on identity. Moreover, the changing land laws have implications for different groups of pastoralists with pastoralist women drawing on resilience strategies through substitution, negotiation, and power. The study research questions focus on the process of implementing the Community Land Act, the institutional framework of devolved land governance and the resilience of pastoralist women in the context of the changing land laws. The study further draws on qualitative methods to investigate the implementation of Community Land Act, the institutional framework governing land among Samburu pastoralists and the resilience of Samburu pastoralists women. This is through focus group discussions and key informant interviews across the national, county and local level. In summary, this thesis finds that the process of implementing the Community Land Act has been faced with challenges among the pastoralists. Questions about access and security of land rights are central to the process and there are different avenues that could benefit and exclude different

groups. Those who have no assurance of securing land after the formalization process could be rendered landless. Therefore, formalization of community rights does not guarantee pastoralists rights to their communal land. Successful implementation of land law reforms is thus dependent on the inclusion of local communities and the value systems that pastoralist communities adhere to in their access to land.