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Boundary-making, tenure insecurity, and conflict: regional dynamics of land tenure change and commodification in East Africa’s pastoralist rangelands

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  • Drew, James
  • Knutsson, Per

Abstract

East Africa’s pastoralist rangelands are undergoing unprecedented commercialisation and fragmentation as states seek to exploit the economic potential of the region. Land is rapidly becoming a tradeable asset and communal tenure is being formalised. This article asks how processes of demarcation, formalisation, and increasing commodification of land are impacting tenure security and conflict dynamics for pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities. We foreground the importance of boundary-making and inter-regional interconnections in our analysis of these processes and their impacts. The article is based primarily on interview data from the neighbouring pastoralist rangelands of Karamoja sub-region, Uganda and West Pokot County, Kenya. A recent rush to acquire land for commercial mining and agriculture in Karamoja, and ongoing land reforms in West Pokot have precipitated land markets and scrambles to demarcate, title, and sell land to benefit from its rising value or to resist its capture by others. Land scrambles and claim-making, alongside more exclusionary ideas of tenure, are having profound impacts on conflict dynamics and tenure insecurity, which as we show often revolves around the materialisation of boundaries. By combining data from West Pokot and Karamoja, the article exemplifies how the recent surge in land commodification alongside demarcation and formalisation – and the impacts on conflict and tenure insecurity – are connected across the region.

Suggested Citation

  • Drew, James & Knutsson, Per, 2025. "Boundary-making, tenure insecurity, and conflict: regional dynamics of land tenure change and commodification in East Africa’s pastoralist rangelands," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:194:y:2025:i:c:s0305750x25001536
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107068
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James Drew, 2022. "Protest, middlemen and everyday meanings of place: reconceptualising the scramble for East Africa’s drylands," Journal of Eastern African Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 160-179, January.
    2. Engström, Linda & Bélair, Joanny & Blache, Adriana, 2022. "Formalising village land dispossession? An aggregate analysis of the combined effects of the land formalisation and land acquisition agendas in Tanzania," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
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    5. Mette Løvschal & Marie Ladekjær Gravesen, 2021. "De-/Fencing Grasslands: Ongoing Boundary Making and Unmaking in Postcolonial Kenya," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, July.
    6. 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.
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    8. Jason Mosley & Elizabeth E. Watson, 2016. "Frontier transformations: development visions, spaces and processes in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia," Journal of Eastern African Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 452-475, July.
    9. Senda, Trinity S. & Robinson, Lance W. & Gachene, Charles K.K. & Kironchi, Geoffrey, 2022. "Formalization of communal land tenure and expectations for pastoralist livelihoods," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
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    2. Gravesen, M.L. & Albrecht, P. & Yding, M., 2026. "Scarcity reimagined: global green imaginaries, frontier-making, and resource conflict in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).

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