THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG

Kenyan forests were depleted by "selfish individuals," who at the same time fueled tribal
conflicts leading to the land clashes of the 1990s. Supporters of the ruling party got the land,
while those in the pro-democracy or opposition movements were displaced. This was one of
the roots of deforestation and forest degradation in Kenya. 364 Ironically, this was one of the
government's ways of retaining power. In essence, if communities were kept busy fighting
over land, they would have less opportunity to demand democracy. 365 O’Donnell, who
focused on problematic tendencies of political and democratic transitions, mentioned that the
formal level of negotiation and political activity largely produces informal maneuvering
which plays a critical role in the dynamics of political change. 366 Similarly other theorists of
neo-Patrimonial politics such as Bayart, view corruption and predatoriness as modes of social
and political behavior shared by a plurality of actors on a more-less grand scale.
A critical look at the land clashes in the early and late 1990s, by Muungano wa Wanavijiji
informs that, the use of public resources by government to get favors from supporters or
ensure political patronage made natural resources available to a small fraction of people,
hence a legalized de facto privatization of common property resources. With such practices
there were increased land clashes and land shortages especially with the Rift Ralley region
and other forested fertile land belts. 367 Kenya is one of the few former settler colonies that
enacted trust land tenure system. This was motivated by the need to redistribute land that was
formerly occupied by white farmers. However, a survey of post independence land resources
in Kenya reveals that Kenya is faced with landlessness of many of its natives with recurrent
land disputes among ethnic groups and between communities. 368 Obtaining from such a
diabolical situation, the former Moi Government was forced to set in train a national land
policy formulation process, to try and sort out these underlying problems.
It must be mentioned that even efforts to solve the underlying land problems were marred by
inequities and inconsistencies, to the extent that such efforts degenerated into the sale of most
of the public forested resources in the name of solving underlying land problems. 369 The new
government of the President Mwai Kibaki put in place a commission to investigate and find
out the reasons why there were illegal land acquisitions especially public land linked to
national forests and other biodiversity reserves. The commission was referred to as the
Ndung’u Comission. 370 It was one of the series of measures designed to tackle the irregular
allocation of forest land to private developers in the country. It was also expected that such
ownership will be revoked soon and that disciplinary action taken against all government
364 Holquist, F and F. Micheal. 1992. Kenya: Slouching Towards Democracy. Africa Today 39(3): 97-111.
365 Klopp, J. 1999. Electoral Despotism: Ethnic Cleansing and Winning Elections in Kenya. A paper Presented at
the New York Association of Political Science Annual Conference.
366 O’dnell, G. 1996. Illussions And Conceptual Flaws. Journal of Democracy 7(4): 160-168.
367 Bayart, J. F, E.Stephen and H. Beatrice. 1999. The Criminalisation of the State in Africa.
Oxford: James Curry.
368 Muungano, W.W. 1997. Manifesto on Land Security and Permanent Schelter for the Poor. Nairobi.
369 Matiru, V. 1999. Forest and Forest Cover in Kenya: Policy and Practice. Nairobi:ICUN.
370 The commision was established in 2003 and charged with the responsibility of inquiring into unlawful
allocation of public lands and liase with the relevant Government departments to have the allocations
nullified.Much of the land unlawfully allocated was forested land.
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