The Kitui Akamba: economic and social change in semi-arid Kenya

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Book

Title:	The Kitui Akamba: economic and social change in semi-arid Kenya
Author:	O'Leary, Michael F.
Year:	1984
Pages:	139
Language:	English
City of publisher:	Nairobi
Publisher:	Heinemann Educational Books
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Kamba agricultural development
Abstract:	The Kitui Akamba (Eastern Province, Kenya) have moved from relative isolation and total dependency on agro-pastoralism, their traditional economy, to greater involvement in the national economy, which provides markets - however unstable - for livestock, opportunities to earn off-farm income through trade and wage employment, food in drought periods and consumer goods. The tendency towards economic diver sification is necessitated from within by among other factors climatic uncertainty, population growth and land shortage. The new economic strategies followed by households have brought about some changes in the Akamba social structure, and greater integration with the national economy has accentuated socioeconomic differentiation even at utui (village) level. The study is based on fieldwork conducted from December 1975 to October 1977.