Land settlement programme and population redistribution in Kenya: the case of Nyandarua District
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of land
settlement programme on the spatial population redistribution in
the rural areas of Kenya, particularly it s contribution to the
spatial population distribution in Nyandarua district, Central
province, with regard to the overall success of this programme as
a population policy measure aimed at correcting the spatial
maldistribution of population in the rural areas.
The land. under settlement programme in Nyandarua district was
formerly held as large scale European owned mixed farms and since
1962 has gradually turned over to Kenya African farmers on Small
Agricultural settlement holdings (plots).
Nyandarua district today has a total of 52 settlement schemes with
23654 agricultural settlement plots covering an area of 510170
acres. The district has sufficiently good land soils and rainfall
to-allow- f-orcash crop agriculture. It is also well serviced with
transportation, marketing, medical and educational facilities.
Land settlement programme has exhausted all
settlement purposes in Nyandarua district.
entirely a settlement district.
the land available for
The district is now
There is a strong positive correlation between the increment in the
number of settlement scheme plots and the population density over
the years since 1962 in Nyandarua district. This means that with
the exhaustion of land for settlement programme in Nyandarua
district, population density is going to be determined by other
factors other than land settlement programme such as the rate of
fertility, infant and child mortality and the sub-division of the
existing settlement scheme plots for sale to people from other
districts in Kenya.
Nyandarua district depicts an even spatial population distribution
per the current administrative divisions as indicated by the index
of population concentration of 2.95% for the district's 1995
estimated population size. This index however is bound to
increase, hence increasing the degree of unevenness unless
subdivision of the existing settlement scheme plots in the high
potential areas is discouraged.
Citation
Postgraduate Diploma in Population Studies of the University of NairobiPublisher
University of Nairobi Department of Arts Population Studies
Description
This project is submitted in fulfilment of a Postgraduate Diploma
in Population Studies of the University of Nairobi