Comparative social demography, livelihood diversification and land tenure among the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania

David K Nkedianye,Paul Van Gardingen,Jan De Leeuw,Robin S Reid,Shem C Kifugo,Mohammed Y Said,Joseph O Ogutu

doi:10.1186/s13570-020-00165-2

Abstract

We analyse social demography, livelihood diversification and land tenure among the Maasai people inhabiting Kenya (three sites) and Tanzania (one site) with contrasting land tenure policies. In Kenya, land was communally owned in the rural Amboseli, fully privatized in the peri-urban Kitengela in Athi-Kaputiei and partially privatized and communally owned in the rural Maasai Mara. In Tanzania, the government owned the land but granted user rights to local villages in rural Simanjiro in Tarangire-Manyara. We interviewed 100 households per site from May to July 2006. There were regional distinctions in social demography, livelihood diversification, hiring herding labour and settlement arrangements, portraying differential transition away from traditional pastoral Maasai society. The transition is most advanced in Kitengela located near Nairobi City, where privatization of land tenure in the 1980s triggered land sub-division, unprecedented land fragmentation and large-scale collapse of the commons, pastoralism and conservation. Land privatization and sub-division in Maasai Mara and Amboseli started in 2000s and were followed similarly by unprecedented fragmentation through fences and accelerated collapse of the commons, pastoralism and conservation, except where wildlife conservancies were later established. We found several differences at the household, regional and national levels. The average age of household heads was lower in Maasai Mara and Amboseli than in Kitengela and Simanjiro. The average number of wives per male household head was lowest in Kitengela, intermediate in Mara and Amboseli and highest in Simanjiro. Correspondingly, the mean number of children per family was lowest in Kitengela, intermediate in Mara and Amboseli and highest in Simanjiro. Household heads were more educated closer to urban centres. Household heads without formal education were thus most common in Amboseli, intermediate in Mara and Simanjiro and fewest in Kitengela. Livelihood diversification was marked in all the sites. Notably, cultivation was widespread and most of those interviewed were interested in crop cultivation. The average number of acres cultivated per household was far higher in Simanjiro than in all the other sites. The mean number of hired herders per household was higher in Kitengela, with the highest number of children enrolled in schools, than in the Mara, Amboseli or Simanjiro. The average number of households per settlement was highest in the Mara, intermediate in Amboseli and Simanjiro and lowest in Kitengela. The marked regional variation in social demography, livelihood diversification and land tenurial arrangements reflects underlying variation in proximity to urban centres, agro-climatological and national developmental and policy environments.

Highlights

Maasai pastoralists, like other pastoralists, are changing rapidly (Coast 2002; Thompson 2002; Worden 2007; Sachedina 2008; BurnSilver 2009; Galvin 2009; Nkedianye et al 2009; Reid et al 2014)
We address three main questions, namely (i) to what extent are the household social-demographic characteristics similar across the rural Amboseli, peri-urban Kitengela and rural Maasai Mara regions of Kenya and the rural Simanjiro region of Tanzania? (ii) How diversified are the sources of livelihoods in the four sites, and (iii) How similar or different are the settlement and land tenure arrangements across the sites? Answers to these questions are important for understanding the nature and general direction of change and assessing the implications of the changes in Maasailand and possibly other pastoral societies
The full set of predictors we considered were: site; age, gender and number of years of formal education of the household head; number of wives per male household head; number of children per family; number of herders and area cultivated per household; number of livestock per capita and their interactions

Summary

Introduction

Like other pastoralists, are changing rapidly (Coast 2002; Thompson 2002; Worden 2007; Sachedina 2008; BurnSilver 2009; Galvin 2009; Nkedianye et al 2009; Reid et al 2014). Social change is a continuous process and difficult to measure for such complex social units as communities (Merzel and D'afflitti 2003), the dynamism of the pastoral socio-economic and policy environments is accelerating change and pushing more pastoralists out of their ‘traditional’ ways of life (Homewood et al 2009a). This exacerbates poverty and human vulnerability to biophysical and other shocks (Lesorogol 2005; UNEP and GoK 2006)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion