Abstract:
This paper examined the dynamics of land use changes on the livelihood of the local
communities in Baringo County. Land is a principal factor of production, a source of life and
livelihoods. It provides a means of living and a variety of uses such as agricultural, human
settlement, environmental conservation, urban and industrial development purposes among
others. These uses compete for space in a fixed area, hence the rising land use conflicts and
degradation. The situation has threatened lives and livelihoods, making it difficult to plan for
the livelihood activities in the County. This is happening against the backdrop of land use
policy changes including; sessional paper no 3 of 2009 on the National Land Policy, the
Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Land Act, 2012, the Land Registration Act, 2012, the
Community Land Act, 2016 and sessional paper no 1 of 2017 on National Land Use Policy that
were intended to alleviate the situation. This situation is now a major threat to the livelihood
of the local communities in Baringo County. This study, therefore, sought to examined the
dynamics of land use changes on the livelihood of the local communities in Baringo county
with specific objective to establish the drivers of the changes. A comprehensive desk review
of existing literature was done, and land use changes were descriptively analyzed. The review
spanned from pre-colonial (before 1895), colonial (1895 to 1963), independence (1963 to
2010) including the subsequent years of land reforms following the promulgation of the
Constitution of Kenya 2010 onwards to 2020. The study found that the key drivers of land use
changes originate from the change of land use policies from customary to European-like
systems during the colonial era (1895 to 1963). These drivers revolve around the conflicts in
the application of land use policies and laws, dual production system (different land use for
registered private land in arable areas and the unregistered community land in non-arable
areas within the county) occasioning wide productivity gap and economic disparity. Further
the knowledge gaps associated with colonial perceptions, ideologies, and attitudinal
