Impacts of Foreign Investments in Land on the Livelihoods of

Pastoralists – A case study of East Africa.

John Kamoiro - Laikipia North Stakeholders Forum

PAN-African Parliament and EALA Seminar – 26th – 27th April 2013;

Rwanda-Kigali

‘’According to FAO estimates, 20 Million hectares have been acquired by foreign investors in Africa alone over a period of 3 years, with long leases of

30 to 99 years’’

Impact of land deals in East Africa observation;Kenya ( Tana Delta- Orma, Wardei & Pokomo and Laikipia - Maasai ) - In Kenya, the issue of illegally acquired land is an emotive issue that has been in the heart of the land debate in the country over the years.

Lack of access to land is a major determinant of poverty, as more than 80% of the population depends on agriculture and livestock for their livelihoods and growing inequality in land ownership as well as smallholdings contributes to high levels of poverty.

Nearly all the land in Tana Delta districts is trust land and majority of the settlers do not have titles to their ancestral lands. They are considered as ‘’squatters’’ by the authorities. This legal situation makes them vulnerable to land grabs by powerful persons or institutions that use the district administration and the Ministry of lands officials to acquire title deeds for lands occupied by others.

The delta is currently under unprecedented threat as government, corporations and foreign agencies scramble to exploit its riches for export crops, bio-fuels and minerals. Developments that do not take the special circumstances of the delta into consideration may lead to the collapse of these services and the destruction of livelihood sources for host communities that depended on these resources for generations.

• Many of the small holder farms with cases of absentee landlords have been occupied by pastoralists and small holders farmers as squatters have been consolidated reducing land available to them. This has created displacement and squeezed their means of production with increasing frequency of drought the food security situation of rural poor is diminishing as they have limited land to produce enough to go store so that they can use during the dry period. Pastoralist loose most of their livestock during drought due to reduced land available for grazing impacting negatively on their household food income and livelihoods (case of 2009 drought ).

An increase in land pressure due to limited access leading to increase in levels of vulnerability – farmers & pastoralists. Increase in land use conflicts and inability to cope among pastoralists and farmers incase of normal rainfall failure, This also cause reduced mobility and due to increased population leads to over exploitation of natural resources in some group ranches and conservation areas.

pastoralist and farmers seeking alternative options i.e. Moving to Mt Kenya forest, intensive Irrigation and trade. Reduced pastureland grazing fields, water points, high land holding capacity, environmental degradation and animal and human diseases and hence high level of household poverty.

Creation of Community based conservancies run and managed by foreign investors i.e Lodges, camp sites, conservancies and Grabbed holding grounds, Stock routes/migration corridors, Out spans and Dip point. The net effect of all these alienations of community land would be the displacement of tens of thousands of people, mainly the Laikipia Maasai, Wardei & Orma of Tana Delta and Pokomo farmers who are smallholders growing subsistence crops such as maize, cassava, beans, vegetables and mangos. This makes them suffer immensely as the delta and Laikipia has been used as the grazing land for their cattle for several generations.

The rural poor continue to be marginalised, have limited access to food security with unsustainable livelihoods due to pressure over limited land as opposed to the large scale ranches that have huge tracks of land and capital for investment.

Tanzania: 'Tourism is a curse to us' (Ngorongoro-Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem, Loliondo and Barabaig Pastoralists)

In the late 1980s, the Tanzanian government resolved to clear the Reserve of pastoralists and their animals. Not only those without permits were compelled to leave, but by late 1988, original permit holders who had been registered since 1952 were forcibly evicted. The consequences of this mass exodus on the local society and economy has been severe. The livestock trading economy collapsed and many families have been forced to leave the area and have move into places already suffering from loss of land to private farmers or other conservation interests.

The greatest impediment to Maasai or Barabaig pastoralism in Tanzania is the enclosure, privatization, and fencing of grazing lands which exclude former owners. Reduced ability of families to engage into meaningful livelihoods, lose of their loved ones and imprisoned for 12 years without an opportunity to be head before the court of law.

The country's "development strategy" says there must be a million tourists by 2010. The Maasai have been herding cattle across the great plains of Tanzania for generations, their nomadic lifestyle helping to preserve the wildlife of East Africa. Now, they are being forcibly evicted so that tour operators can turn their homelands into vast "nature refuges" for wealthy holiday makers.

Rwanda and Burundi• Many hectares of land have been grabbed even in countries with less land like

Rwanda and Burundi, leaving many people landless, homeless and with increasingly poor livelihoods. land grabbing by military officials in Sudan; land grabbing by local and international companies supported by the government in Uganda and Rwanda; and land grabbing by government officials and politicians in Burundi.

Observations- Shootings and violent confrontations between herders, Thomson guards and the

police. Maasai farms were burnt by policemen in Loliondo, after herdsmen hit by drought had moved cattle on to the land leased by OBC.

- Systematic destruction of the culture and livelihoods of Africa's most iconic tribe But now they are being turned into a ghetto race, unwanted in Africa's new Disney lands.

- Many foreign-owned tourist companies have been complicit in the Tanzanian government's parcelling up and flogging off of the lands over which the Maasai roamed, evicting families in their hundreds from parks. Maasai are painfully squeezed between national parks and tracts of land owned by foreign investors.

- Today, 70% of the people live below the poverty line, and 15% of children do not survive to the age of five. But a third of a million tourists visit their land every year, earning the government-run park authority $10m.

Different land deals in the East Africa• Tiomin Mining – Extraction of tiomin from sand dunes, more than 20,000 Ha.

• TARDA-Mumias Partnership – Monoculture sugar cane production, 40,000 Ha and 25,000 people evicted.

• Mat International – Sugar cane production, 120,000 Ha.

• Bedford Bio-fuels – To grow Jatropha curcas90,000 Ha and 45 Year lease. Owned by local pastoralists group ranch.

• G4 Industries – Oil seed farming,50,000 Ha.

• Galole Horticulture Project – Maize plantation, 5,000 Ha. Orma & Wardei forced to graze outside Delta.

• Land for Emirate of Qatar – Enforced hunting rights, Kenya to US$ 3.5 Billion to build deep water port in exchange of 40,000 Ha land to Qatar to grow food.

• Private ranches – White settlers, 99 Years lease. Laikipia and Tana Delta.

• United Arab Emirates - Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC), a safari company that does not advertise in brochures or on a website. Set up in 1993 by a UAE defence minister close to the Dubai royal family, it exists so that Gulf sheikhs and millionaires can play in the north Tanzanian wilderness, over an area, Loliondo, that is larger than Hampshire.

• Thomsons Safari – Tanzania, 12,000 Ha, Eco Tourism. Banned Maasai and their herds from their traditional grazing and watering grounds.

• SENAPA, Ikorongo Game Reserve, Grumeti Game Reserve and Tabora in Tanzania.

Conclusion• Many of the large scale ranches are developing

private residences on two acre plots within the ranches and selling them to people from Europe, America and Kenya based residents. The process of land acquisition and the legal ownership of these properties requires further research.

• A few of the rural communities have responded to this by filing cases in court to contest ownership and right of access to these lands.

THANK YOU