| dc.description.abstract | The thesis constitutes a study of land values, population
qrowth and the rural land market in Kisii District. It investigates
the nature of the Kisii rural land market, the possible causes of
high land values and whether population growth is a significant
factor.
It was established that the number of land sales have been on the
decline especially as from the 1980s. The main reason for this
was the high population density and the over dependence of the
Gusii on agriculture which could not war r ant many sales. It was
also established that the pieces of land disposed of in the market
have progressively been diminishing. It was evident that there
were no leasehold sales in the market during the study period of
1967-87.
An upward trend in land values was noted although t he r e
we r e fluctuations he r e and there. In fitting the trend equation
for them, the Least Squares Geometric Straight Line Approach was
used. A major deduction in the study was that high land values
in densely populated Kenya are here to stay and that transactions
in the freehold interest are on the decline.
It was evident that population growth in Kisii is a real
problem to the community's economy since in other years it was
growing at the prohibitive rate of 5.2 % per year.
The causes for high land values in the district were
identified as good climate, cultural attachment to land, soil
fertility, inflation, population growth, location, economic development)
per capita income, speculation, political stability and government
interventlon ,
Results obtained revealed that whereas the land market in
Kisii was active in the 1960s and had assumed a descending trend
in the 1980s, land values were increasing at the rate of 1.43 per
cent per annum at 1977 prices while population was rising at a
much faster annual average rate of 3.88 per cent.
The major finding of the study was that the relationship
between land values and population growth is not strong,
The main recommendations were that small families be
encouraged, freehold sales be banned in favour of leaseholds and
that less emphasis be placed on land i.e. people should be made
to understand that investment in land is not the only course of
action for survival . It was also proposed that in order to curb
exorbitant land prices, land should be nationalized.
The study consists of three sections the first of which
sets the premise against which the cor e of the study is examined.
The section in addition reviews land values in the light of land as
a scarce r e source in a dynamic environment.
The second part consists of two chapters. The first one
presents the concept of rural development and the land question
in Kenya. It shows the place of land in the process of rural
development. The other chapter examines the general features of
Kisii District. Examination of the study area reveals the possible
causes of the prevailing high land values.
The last part of the thesis also consists of two chapters.
One is an analysis of population and land market data while the
last one is a summary of conclusions and recommendations. | en_US |
