Why, despite the recent introduction of new land laws has there been an increase in land grabbing in Kenya? Why has legislation failed to address long-standing grievances about grossly unequal land distribution? This landmark study suggests that questions of justice should be central to discussions of African land reform. While constitutional reformers in Kenya promised transformative changes in land relations, land law reforms since 2010 have been more concerned with the administration of land and with bureaucratic power than with the consequences of unequal access to land for ordinary Kenyans. Manji documents the thwarted struggle and surveys the prospects for genuine change.

Ambreena Manji is Professor of Land Law and Development at the School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University. Between 2010 and 2014, she was Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Cover photograph: Rachel Korir sits in front of her hut in Kapcheboi, Kenya, 6 May, 2019 (© Thomson Reuters Foundation/Dominic Kirui)

Published in association with the British Institute in Eastern Africa

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Following the murder of George Floyd, the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) expresses its solidarity with those who suffer racism and police violence around the world, and particularly with Black individuals and communities who often bear the brunt of such violence. The scholarship of our members and affiliates is fundamentally concerned with justice, inequality, and histories of racism. For these reasons, we recognise the historic and present-day connections between struggles for justice across the globe. 

In line with its mission and its commitment to promote research in all the disciplines in the humanities and social sciences within the wider region of eastern Africa, the BIEA is organising a series of webinars on #BlackLivesMatter with a particular focus on racism, police brutality, state violence, memorialisation, and justice in eastern Africa. 

In turn, we invite researchers, activists and practitioners who would like to speak on an online panel or roundtable to contact [email protected] with a suggested topic and title. We welcome papers that provide historical or contemporary accounts of violences suffered, as well as those that offer ideas on how to promote justice and equality. Priority will be given to speakers from the region.