Land rights and land grabbing in Oromia, Ethiopia

The land is not only a vital livelihood asset but also indispensable for the enjoyment of several human rights including the right to life, the right to food, the right to housing, the right to property, the right to development, and the right to self-determination. However, smallholder farmers and pastoralists do not have an adequate legislative protection as laws and practices facilitate arbitrary expropriations and land grabbing, which induce an economic marginalisation of most ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The Imperial regime (1930–1974) had imposed an oppressive land tenure system on the Oromo and other peoples of Ethiopia until the Derg regime (1974–1991) had introduced a public land tenure system. Land laws currently in force also do not sufficiently protect rights of rural land users. The Ethiopian Constitution of 1995 restricts the legislative power of the regional States on the utilisation of land and other natural resources and it excludes a right of economic self-determination of ethnic groups. Forced evictions occur based on flawed expropriation laws, which do not entitle farmers and pastoralists to a right to just compensation. In addition, the government of Ethiopia promotes urbanisation and private investments at the expense of the poor and vulnerable smallholders. This paper examines the Ethiopia’s law and practice pertinent to land rights with a particular emphasis on the Oromia Regional State. It explores seven ways in which the law and the practice legalise and institutionalise dispossession and economic marginalisation of the poor without a sufficient due process of law.