Land reforms and politics in Kenya, 1954-70

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Periodical article

Title:	Land reforms and politics in Kenya, 1954-70
Author:	Harbeson, J.W.
Year:	1971
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:	9
Issue:	2
Pages:	231-251
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	colonial policy land land reform
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/159442
Abstract:	Advances a preliminary political analysis of the impact of two major land reforms undertaken in Kenya within the last 15 years and which are still in progress. The first, begun during the 'Mau Mau' rising in the mid-1950s, enabled Africans to consolidate and gain individual legal titles to their land holdings and subsequently to participate in the production of lucrative cash crops. The second enabled Africans to buy land from European farmers, many of whom wished to liquidate their holdings before independence occurred in December 1963. Thesis is that land reforms, as preconditions for increased rural economic production and development, have been undertaken to check and counteract the development of African politics, rather than to give economic progress a positive and tangible political significance for rural Africans. The evidence to support this proposition is to be found in the purposes and uses of these land reforms, and in the manner in which the more recent programme has been implemented. Notes.