Socioeconomic Change and Land Use in Africa : The Transformation of Property Rights in Maasailand

This study investigates how and why a group ranch members in Kajiado District, Kenya, supported the subdivision of their collective landholdings into individual, titled units, and what outcomes resulted in this transition to individual rights. Viewed over a longer time scale, the author finds that politics is at the core of institutional change. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi The Policy Problem: Group Ranch Subdivision in Semiarid Maasailand....Pages 1-24 Background to Kajiado District, Kenya....Pages 25-44 Research Design....Pages 45-58 The Footprints of History....Pages 59-90 The Puzzle of “Perverse” Property Rights....Pages 91-120 Subdividing the Group Ranch: Allocating Land and Distributing Wealth....Pages 121-148 The Subdivided Group Ranch: Exploring Ecological Implications....Pages 149-166 The Transformation of Property Rights to Land in Kenya’s Maasailand....Pages 167-175 Back Matter....Pages 177-219