DYNAMICS OF LAND USE CHANGES ON THE LIVELIHOOD OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN BARINGO COUNTY

Abstract

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 land uses have been changing, and compete for space in a fixed area, hence the rising land use conflicts and deterioration of local communities’ livelihoods. The situation has threatened lives and livelihoods, making it difficult to plan for the livelihood activities in Baringo County. This is 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 confers sanctity of land and its use. The study, therefore, sought to establish the drivers of land use changes, to determine the effects of land use changes and land use policy decisions, as well as to evaluate the responsiveness of government decisions on the land use changes. Using non-experimental survey design, the study obtained data used to answer the following research questions; what are the drivers, what the effects of land uses are and how do government decisions respond to the consequences of land use changes. a total of 323 households were randomly sampled from Baringo South, Tiaty, Baringo North and Eldama Ravine constituencies. The drivers of land use changes were qualitatively analyzed, while the Cobb-Douglas production model was used to estimate the effects of land use changes, and Multinomial logit model was used to determine the effects of land use policy and evaluate the responsiveness of government decisions. The study found out that land use policy change traced from colonial era was the key driver of land use changes in Baringo County. Land use policies changed from customary to European like statutory system during the colonial era, and its legacy continued to influence land use changes to date. The change created dual land use system; registered individual land use for arable which constitutes 20 % of the total land, and unregistered communal land use for dry areas which constitutes 73 % of the total land in Baringo County. This divergence due to dual application of policies spurred regional economic disparity associated with the wide productivity gap between ASALs and Highlands. The effects decreased human livelihood assets productivity by 56.1%, physical livelihood assets productivity by 53.4%, and financial livelihood assets productivity by 65.6% at different levels of significance. Though, it increased natural livelihood assets productivity by 54.3% and social livelihood assets productivity by 61.3 % at different levels of significance. The regional productivity difference showed that in Tiaty and Baringo South constituencies are ASALs under unregistered community land use, livelihood assets productivity decreased by 282.4 % and by 9% respectively. Whereas in Eldama Ravine and Baringo North which are highlands under registered private land use, livelihood assets productivity increased by 139.3% and by 5.1% respectively. The study found out that land use policy reinforces regional economic disparity and government decisions favored registered private land use relative to unregistered communal land use. The study concluded that dynamics of land use changes revolves around dual land use practices resulting to unstable and uncertain livelihoods for the local communities in Baringo County. The government, therefore, need to recognize, protect and register the local communities land use rights. Hence secure land tenure and sustainable livelihoods.