Transition of ranches to community land gives pastoralists new lease of life
Elijah Ruso, grazing manager at Musul Community Community land in Laikipia County, tending to his camels. He says land zoning has helped curb constant conflicts caused by competition for pasture
What you need to know:
- The Musul community has about 700 members residing on a land area of more than 2,600 acres.
It is a hot afternoon at Musul Community Land in Laikipia County, where Elijah Ruso, the area grazing manager, is leading community members in discussing how they will ensure their livestock are well fed amid ensuing dry spells.
The Musul community has about 700 members residing on a land area of more than 2,600 acres. In the past, this pastoralist community has been traversing far and wide with their camels, goats and cows to the neighbouring Isiolo, Samburu and Baringo counties in search of pasture, and this has been a major cause of conflict due to contact with other communities.
But this time round things are different as herders here are counting on hay banks to feed their livestock. “We are now storing hay for use during dry seasons,” explains Ruso, who is a camel farmer. The community is now at liberty to use their land to make hay and engage in other agricultural activities due to the successful transition of group ranches to community land, thanks to enactment of the 2016 Community Land Act (CLA).
“This replaced the Land Group Ranch Registration Act and the Trust Land Act, and the community members were registered as land owners,” explains Justice James Olalo of the Nyeri Environment and Land Court.
In October 2020, the community received the title deed to their community land. Previously, like thousands of rural and indigenous communities in Kenya, the Musuls lacked clear legal rights despite living on the same land for generations. Further, before this enactment, only a few men at the top community leadership chain had a superior say on the land. “This had tremendous negative effects on our community, where a few high ranking men within the group would make poor decisions about our land, affecting its use,” explains Ruso.
The CLA also made way for digital land governance programme, which targets all the 47 counties with an overall objective of improved security of tenure and equitable access to land and natural resources for enhancement of livelihoods and sustainable socioeconomic development. According to Husna Mbarak, land governance programme manager at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , this is crucial because it secures the land tenure system.
“This is a legal framework that defines the appropriate mechanisms at which property rights about land matters are allocated, transferred, used or managed.”
According to Mbarak, other than looking into the potential of a particular landscape in respect to the available resources, there is an aspect of land zoning, which plays a crucial role in determining how it is used; for instance space for settlement or cultivation. Ruso notes that the transformation has come in handy amid drought and limited resources. “The main dispute was pastures. We now make hay that is used to feed our livestock during the dry season, with the rest of our land put on alternative uses like kitchen gardening."
Herders also have grazing agreements with their neighbours to ensure that mobility and access to the limited resources is possible. The issue of conflict resulting from the search of grazing land has affected the Maasai community for years. “For years, the search for pasture instigated conflict especially when it came to competition for grazing land. But the transition to communal land has greatly reduced contact between different communities and thus curbed conflict,” explains James Ruso, the area chief.
The area grazing manager notes that with the introduction of hay banks, their livestock are assured of food security. He says this is one way that has fostered regenerative grazing to replenish the lost pastures, increasing ground cover for scrubs, grass and trees. He says they have zoned the community land into four villages to enhance management. They also have rules and guidelines to restrict grazing zones.
