HISTORY OF LAND UTILITIZATION AND OWNERSHIP IN MWEA DIVISION OF KIRINYAGA COUNTY FROM 1911 TO 1963

Abstract

Land ownership and utilization has been a contested issue in Kenya since colonial establishment. This is mainly because of alien land laws and policies that contradicted well established African land tenure and utilization systems. The presence of European settler class that required land to be alienated for its use complicated the land question in the colony. These foreign laws and policies delineated specific enclaves for African communities; the so called African Reserves without consideration of such factors as population increase and land fertility. Consequently by the end of the 1920s most of these reserves were overcrowded, terribly denuded and could hardly support the African productive capacities. Clamor for more land by African chiefs and leaders set in. The colonial government responded by rehabilitating land in African areas through terracing of eroded areas, destocking of overstocked areas and irrigating of dry areas. While literature on land conservation in colonial Kenya is in abundance, there is sparsity of literature on the colonial attempt to reclaim enclaves such as swamps, arid but fertile lands that would require reclamation and irrigation respectively to improve their production and help to absorb excess population from the neighboring African Reserves. To demonstrate to the Africans that arid and swampy land could be reclaimed to improve production the colonial government decided to establish Mwea Irrigation and Settlement scheme in Mwea division. Land rehabilitation in Mwea being a labour intensive exercise, the colonial government decided to rehabilitate the Mau Mau detainees by making them work in the scheme from 1953 onwards. Once completed the scheme was used to resettle landless from African areas such as Kiambu amidst resistance by the local population to what they termed giving of their land to newcomers. The major aim of this study is to record the history of land ownership and utilization in Mwea division from 1911 to 1963. The study will be informed by two theories; the political ecology and the articulation of modes of production theories. This study will adopt ex-post facto research design since manipulation of variable will not be possible. The study will utilize both primary data and secondary sources. The researcher will employ purposive and snowball sampling techniques to select informants. Internet will also be a vital source of information. Data will be analyzed through documentary review and content analysis. The findings of this study will benefit policy makers in matters of population resettlement and scholars by availing information on land reclamation and rehabilitation in colonial Kenya.