ABSTRACT
The appropriation of rangelands by a variety of actors who use political means to achieve what would normally be socially and economically impossible is one of the most critical factors undermining pastoral productive land uses and innovation in the Horn and east Africa. Within the large setting of African modernity and political economic change, this chapter examines recent large-scale land acquisitions in East Africa, identifying factors that make pastoral landholding vulnerable and the strategies used by those who have seized pastoral lands. It provides an examination of three forms of land grabbing experienced in East Africa in recent years. First is the appropriation of enormous amounts of fertile land through ‘agrarian colonialism’ by states and commercial agro-businesses. Second is the acquisition of wildlife-rich range areas by entrepreneurs practicing a sort of ‘environmental imperialism’ to create private game parks and high-end tourist attractions. Third is the loss of Maasai land in Kenya via ‘legal theft’ during the privatization process.
