• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Land Distribution Fuels Complex Conflict in Kenya

    February 13, 2008 By Sonia Schmanski
    “In Kenya’s highly competitive landscape, land has become the battleground,” argued Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai in a recent op-ed in The Washington Post. Maathai joins a growing group of experts who emphasize that recent violence in Kenya stems not only from ethnic divisions, but also from longstanding tensions over resource allocation. Earlier this year, guest contributor Colin Kahl asserted that the struggles between the Kikuyu, Luo, and Kalenjin tribes are partly based on disparate levels of property ownership.

    The media sometimes portray the violence in Kenya as a simple manifestation of ethnic friction, but many commentators note the importance of land distribution and other factors. Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and a visiting public policy scholar at the Wilson Center, told The New York Times, “You have to understand that these issues are much deeper than ethnic. They are political…they go back to land.” In a similar vein, Oxford University’s David Anderson told Newsweek, “If this violence is really driven by ethnic hatred, why is it that violence breaks out in specific places that are utterly predictable? This violence…is provoked in areas that have a history of violence because of other issues, like land.”

    Looking forward, Harvard professor Calestous Juma says that if mediation talks are to be effective, they will have to avoid “the template [of thinking] about Africa in terms of ethnic differences.” Similarly, Maathai emphasizes that “ruling elites must devote time, energy and resources to ensuring…equitable distribution of resources.”
    Topics: Africa, conflict, natural resources
    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/04423905315382313681 Sonia Schmanski

      Jeffrey Gettleman’s article in today’s New York Times offers a more comprehensive discussion of the complex character of the relationships between Kenya’s various ethnic groups and the ways in which these relationships have evolved – or devolved – during the years since Kenya achieved independence.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/04423905315382313681 Sonia Schmanski

      The sustainable peace that many hoped would settle in following negotiations to create a power-sharing agreement appears in jeopardy as new violence flares. Check out this piece from today’s NYT.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/18337694112852162181 Geoff Dabelko

      Very interesting discussion of land tenure and conflict connections in Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan featuring Peter Hetz of ARD and Greg Myers of USAID.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/02269351482577748788 Aneesh

      This blog is really informative; I have gone through all the posts. I don’t know why the blog master is not interested in posting some more relative information. I request the blog master to add some more content to this great blog. I shall link from my blogs to this blog soon.
      Best Hopes.com Offers free review service to hundreds of public utility products and service. This is for public use and people can often come to read reviews and very many products here- new products are being added to this site day by day. Whole services free for all.
      The list of our review on almost all products and services are including Internet Online jobs, Make money home, Web promotion, Child custody information, Saving marriages news, HIV, Cancer, Dating, Education and water fuel.
      You can download the information from the following URL http://www.besthopes.com that for free. I Hope that you will add more free information to the comment boxes to let people read about these other interesting subjects.
      God bless you all-

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • Rainforest destruction. Gold mining place in Guyana China’s Growing Environmental Footprint in the Caribbean
    ZingaZingaZingazoomzoom: US cleans up. China runs wild on free rein- A lack of international compliance mechanisms to hold...
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous souhaitons que le partenaire nous apporte son soutien technique et financier.
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous sommes une organisation féminine dénommée: Actions Communautaires pour le Développement de...
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000