Institutional Change and Politics: The Transformation of Property Rights in Land in Maasailand, Kenya

Abstract

"This paper presents part of a wider research conducted in four different sites or group ranch areas in Kajiado district of Kenya that is inhabited by the pastoral Maasai community. The research is an attempt to explain the transformation of property rights in land from collective holdings into individual and titled units. To this end it focuses on three related concerns: one: the reasons why group ranch members supported the subdivision and parcelization of their collective holdings; two, the process itself and interactions between individuals and groups in their attempts to press their claims and ultimately influence the process of land allocation; and three, the implications of property rights transitions on range ecology and management. In this paper, I limit the discussion to one puzzle: why group ranch members supported or are supporting the subdivision of their collective holdings into individual, titled parcels this last decade."