ABSTRACT
The last four decades have seen a development boom at Kenya’s northern frontier and the gateway to the north. The region connecting the highlands through the pastoral corridor in Isiolo was politically neglected since independence. The socioeconomic changes within Isiolo municipality are due to infrastructural developments, such as the Isiolo International Airport and the Isiolo‒Moyale Highway, both components of the proposed LAPSSET Corridor. Contestations were created between infrastructures and the nomadic pastoral communities. Isiolo land is under communal or customary tenure, leading to land speculation and grabbing. Communal land management resulted in ethno-political competition, armed conflicts, and possible future breeding grounds for insurgencies. We show how land use changes affect nomadic pastoralists, exacerbated the contestations between the Kenyan government and the communities in Wabera and Ngaremara wards. Evidence is based on eight focus group discussions and 36 interviews, which were triangulated with academic sources, government documents, and media reports. With airport construction on disputed land and across the boundary of two counties, this has triggered land tenure insecurity and conflicts associated with the compensation process between the two major ethnic communities. The future social-ecological transformation of Isiolo County is accompanied by uncertainties, insecurities, and claim-making over the airport.
