Agricultural Enterprise Initiatives of USAID/Kenya - Land Tenure and ...

3.0 STATUS OF LTPR IN
AGRICULTURAL, FORESTRY,
AND WATER SECTORS
3.1 LAND TENURE: PRE- AND POST-COLONIAL ERAS
The section below provides background on LTPR during colonialism and after independence:
• Land allocations during the colonial period. Original land allocations in the colonial period were all
2.0 square miles or 1,500 acres (607 ha), all with water frontages. The basic agricultural sustainability and
conservation issues seem to have been well considered prior to subdivision and allocation to white
settlers.
• Smallholders under colonial administration. Smallholders were entitled or engaged to work in the
properties of the larger landholders. There were disputes on willingness of communities to adopt this
practice, including the “Elgoni Masaai.”
• Post-independence land tenure. Post-colonial land tenure resulted in the following tenure regimes:
trust land, government (public) land, private land (freehold), and private land (leasehold). Some largescale
farms from the colonial period were kept as such and converted to lease land. Land speculation
became a serious concern beginning in the 1970s.
• Land subdivision/fragmentation. The basic premise in the post-independence period was that all
persons requesting land received 20 acres (8.1 ha). Since then land area has been reduced through
subdivision. Average farm sizes are down to 0.25 acre (0.1 ha) in the Kitale area, and this further reduces
realistic traditional inheritance expectations with continued successive subdivisions.
• Settlement schemes. Settlement schemes were established to settle populations that had been displaced
during the colonial period. The settlement programs involved the Settlement Board, and the Settlement
Fund Trustees (SFT), which were under the then Ministry of Settlements and then linked to the Lands
Office, Ministry of Lands. Some settlement schemes worked well; these include the “Ndala” and
“Kiminini.” Under the terms of the settlement schemes, title holders were not allowed to subdivide land
that was less than 8-10 acres (3-4 ha).
• Land titles. A majority of the small-scale farmers do not hold title deeds either because they bought the
land through a cooperative and never completed the process of obtaining a title deed, or they do not
understand the value of the title and have not followed up through proper channels. Some land titles
have been outstanding since the 1980s. Smallholders do recognize the elements of insecurity and lack
access to capital, and therefore do not develop the land for long-term purposes. Also, as has been shown
in the January 2008 and subsequent post-election violence, holding a land title deed does not provide
security against displacement. The only way to resolve this issue is to have a complete amnesty for the
genuine and original title holders who, in many cases, were cheated.
• Private property in the Rift Valley. Some white Kenyans maintained their properties or purchased
leases just after independence (1962 or 1963). These are mainly 999-year leases. With the GOK intent on
reducing lease terms to 99 years, however, many people remain concerned about whether their leases will
be rolled over; if these long-term leases could be converted to freehold titles; and whether they would be
the first ones asked to go into new settlement and subdivision programs. A general deduction now is that
the GOK should be encouraged to retain any ‘white’ Kenyan genuinely interested in participating in the
LTPR ASSESSMENT: AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES IN KENYA 9