IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jinsec/v2y2006i02p157-180_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The footprints of history: path dependence in the transformation of property rights in Kenya's Maasailand

Author

Listed:
  • MWANGI, ESTHER

Abstract

The recent wave of subdivision of Maasai group ranches is not an isolated event, but rather part of a broader, historical process of transformation in land relations and policy development in Maasailand. Maasai have over time supported land privatization, first by formalizing collective rights in group ranches and more recently by individualizing collective land holdings. Privatization is perceived to be an effective strategy for safeguarding Maasai land claims against appropriation by non-Maasai, the government and elite Maasai. Construction of the Uganda railway in early twentieth century and the subsequent influx of European settlers who were granted individual title to secure their investments are events that began the institutional path of privatization. The persistence and dominance of individualized arrangements regardless of other more optimal property rights options is a result of the dominance of elite interests (supported by state institutions) even as state imposed institutions replaced Maasai customary systems of land allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Mwangi, Esther, 2006. "The footprints of history: path dependence in the transformation of property rights in Kenya's Maasailand," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(2), pages 157-180, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:2:y:2006:i:02:p:157-180_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1744137406000324/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Leeson, Peter T. & Harris, Colin, 2018. "Wealth-destroying private property rights," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-9.
    2. Mwangi, Esther, 2007. "Subdividing the Commons: Distributional Conflict in the Transition from Collective to Individual Property Rights in Kenya's Maasailand," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 815-834, May.
    3. Peter T. Leeson & Colin Harris & Andrew Myers, 2021. "Kornai goes to Kenya," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 99-110, April.
    4. Mwangi, Esther, 2006. "Subdividing the commons: the politics of property rights transformation in Kenya's Maasailand," CAPRi working papers 46, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Gargule A. Achiba, 2019. "Navigating Contested Winds: Development Visions and Anti-Politics of Wind Energy in Northern Kenya," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, January.
    6. Esther Mwangi, 2009. "Property rights and governance of Africa's rangelands: A policy overview," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 33(2), pages 160-170, May.
    7. Teresiah Wairimu Ng’ang’a & Jeanne Y. Coulibaly & Todd A. Crane & Charles K. Gachene & Geoffrey Kironchi, 2020. "Propensity to adapt to climate change: insights from pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households of Laikipia County, Kenya," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 393-413, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cup:jinsec:v:2:y:2006:i:02:p:157-180_00. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/joi .

    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.