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Gendered Access to and Utilization of Land by Food Producers in Urban Kenya

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Abstract

This paper explores gendered patterns of access to and utilization of land by urban farmers in Eldoret (Kenya). It shows that the urban farmers established entitlement over farming spaces mainly through purchase, social connections, and informal use of land around their dwellings. Owing partly to social norms and cultural practices, and partly to their better economic status, it was mostly the men who had greater entitlement to farming spaces in male-headed households; but female household heads also accessed land in their own right, although they accessed land to a limited extent and their holdings were generally smaller than men’s. However, despite high incidences of non-ownership of land among them, married women seemed to enjoy considerable access and use rights over household land for urban farming, but such rights were more limited for other land uses such as housing. Female household heads enjoyed greater control (compared to married women) over the use of household land holdings for whatever uses.

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Notes

  1. Eldoret Municipal Council website: http://www.eldoretmunicipal.go.ke/

  2. The key informants were drawn from Eldoret Municipal Council, town planning department, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret, Farmchem (a private seed company), and the provincial administration.

  3. Interview with the Assistant District Town Planning officer, Uasin Gishu District; Langas village elders.

  4. This is based on informal interviews with Langas village elders and personal observations during exploratory tours of the settlement.

  5. Director of Environment, EMC, interviewed 4 July 2007.

  6. Senior Enforcement Officer, EMC, interviewed on 31 July 2007.

  7. Locational Extension Officer, Pioneer Area, interviewed on 22 August 2007.

  8. Director of Environment, EMC, interviewed 4 July 2007.

  9. EMC’s Director of Environment explained that publicizing such information regarding land allocations for farming would be misconstrued by the public to mean that the council encouraged urban farming; an eventuality that the council supposedly feared would make farming in town to spiral out of control (interviewed 4 July 2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Moi University, P.O. Box 3900, Eldoret, Kenya

    Robert Romborah Simiyu

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  1. Robert Romborah Simiyu
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Correspondence to Robert Romborah Simiyu.

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Simiyu, R.R. Gendered Access to and Utilization of Land by Food Producers in Urban Kenya. Urban Forum 24, 325–342 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-013-9190-4

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