IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gig/afjour/v46y2011i2p99-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competing Claims and Contested Boundaries: Legitimating Land Rights in Isiolo District, Northern Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Saafo Roba Boye
  • Randi Kaarhus

Abstract

People from five different ethnic groups share the territory that is Isiolo District, situated in northern Kenya. This article gives an account of the different groups’ claims to land in this inter-ethnic setting, which is located in the border area of the vast drylands southeast of the Sahara. Presenting contemporary claims in a narrative form, the authors illustrate how these claims seek legitimacy through reference to historical processes, to first-comer status and to former governments’ decisions, to citizenship dues, as well as to “tribal” group rights. Taking into account the fact that the broader constitutional, political and social contexts related to these narratives and claims are, at present, in a state of transition, the article seeks to situate the local people’s perspectives and local land dynamics within broader discourses on land conflict and land policy reform in Africa. In this way, it also provides context for the series of new inter-ethnic clashes that took place in Isiolo District in 2011.

Suggested Citation

  • Saafo Roba Boye & Randi Kaarhus, 2011. "Competing Claims and Contested Boundaries: Legitimating Land Rights in Isiolo District, Northern Kenya," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 46(2), pages 99-124.
  • Handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:46:y:2011:i:2:p:99-124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp/article/view/463/461
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lesorogol, Carolyn K., 2005. "Privatizing pastoral lands: economic and normative outcomes in Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1959-1978, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hannah Elliott, 2022. "Durable conversions: Property, aspiration, and inequality in urban northern Kenya," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 112-124, January.
    2. Nyong Princely Awazi & Amy Quandt, 2021. "Livelihood resilience to environmental changes in areas of Kenya and Cameroon: a comparative analysis," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Amy Quandt, 2019. "Variability in perceptions of household livelihood resilience and drought at the intersection of gender and ethnicity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Clemens Greiner & Michael Bollig & J. Terrence McCabe, 2011. "Notes on Land-based Conflicts in Kenya’s Arid Areas," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 46(3), pages 77-81.
    5. Jean-Pierre Jacob & Pierre-Yves Le Meur, 2012. "Three Views of a Secret: Land Rights and the Constitution of Local Citizenship in West Africa," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 47(1), pages 89-96.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lenyeletse V. Basupi & Claire H. Quinn & Andrew J. Dougill, 2017. "Pastoralism and Land Tenure Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Conflicting Policies and Priorities in Ngamiland, Botswana," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Bambio, Yiriyibin & Bouayad Agha, Salima, 2018. "Land tenure security and investment: Does strength of land right really matter in rural Burkina Faso?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 130-147.
    3. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, January.
    4. Behnke, Roy, 2018. "Open access and the sovereign commons: A political ecology of pastoral land tenure," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 708-718.
    5. Carrie B. Kerekes & Claudia R. Williamson, 2010. "Propertyless in Peru, Even with a Government Land Title," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 1011-1033, July.
    6. M. Aufderheide & C. Voigts & C. Hülsebusch & B. Kaufmann, 2013. "Decent work? How self-employed pastoralists and employed herders on ranches perceive their working conditions," ICDD Working Papers 7, University of Kassel, Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften (Social Sciences), Internatioanl Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD).
    7. Schnegg, Michael & Linke, Theresa, 2015. "Living Institutions: Sharing and Sanctioning Water among Pastoralists in Namibia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 205-214.
    8. Kassie, Menale & Ndiritu, Simon Wagura & Stage, Jesper, 2014. "What Determines Gender Inequality in Household Food Security in Kenya? Application of Exogenous Switching Treatment Regression," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 153-171.
    9. Shari L. Rodriguez & M. Nils Peterson & Frederick W. Cubbage & Erin O. Sills & Howard D. Bondell, 2018. "What is Private Land Stewardship? Lessons from Agricultural Opinion Leaders in North Carolina," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-12, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:46:y:2011:i:2:p:99-124. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Andreas Mehler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.