Influence of Land Disputes on Farming Competitiveness in Chepyuk Ward of Bungoma County, Kenya

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue XII, December 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

 Influence of Land Disputes on Farming Competitiveness in Chepyuk Ward of Bungoma County, Kenya

John Ayieko Aseta¹ and Ronald Rutto Ngeiyo^2
1Department of Social Sciences, Kaimosi Friends University College, Kaimosi, Kenya.
² Department of Geography, Kisii University, Eldoret, Kenya

ABSTRACT:- The unresolved land issue in Chepyuk ward for decades had adversely affected farming competitiveness in spite of the region being fertile and viable for competitive farm production. Lack of security of tenure on the untitled land had a direct bearing on investment (farm inputs) and therefore to a large extends affected farm output. Despite many researches that had been undertaken on Chepyuk land issue, land and conflict had been widely studied rather than farming competitiveness. The studies on farming competitiveness in Chepyuk ward remains scanty and therefore justify more research on the aspect of farming competitiveness. The main objective of this study was to examine the influence of land disputes on farming competitiveness in Chepyuk Ward of Bungoma County. A descriptive survey research design was used in this study. The study was guided by theory of land ownership in a free society advanced by Ingalls (2012). The target population was 3120, households, 10 land officers and 10 agricultural officers located at the county level. Multistage sampling technique was used in this study where Simple random sampling was employed when selecting 312 respondents among the households. Five Land officers and Five Agricultural officers were respectively and purposefully sampled for this study. The researcher used questionnaires, interviews and document analysis as the main tools for collecting data. The data from the questionnaires, interviews and document analysis was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The researcher used frequencies and percentages in summarizing data. Information obtained through interviews was discussed to support or dispute the findings from the questionnaires.Tables were used to present the data for purposes of interpretation. The study informs Ministry of lands on the existing gaps in the fight against irregular allocation of land. The study also enables land policy experts in the government review existing mechanisms and systems set to support the Chepyuk area residents in dealing with cases that bring about land conflicts in the area and entire nation. Residents were in agreement that the land lacked mapping, surveying and land registration and this triggered frequent conflicts. Cultural norms of the community also denied women land ownership rights. The Land officers and Agricultural officers gave similar opinion. Lack of land documentation denied people opportunity to seriously venture into farming with sole aim of attaining food security and profit negatively affecting livelihood of the residents. The government should reposes illegally acquired plots and re-issue to the rightful owners, it should also process land titles for the scheme. The community should also be sensitized to embrace gender equity on land allocations. This will enable residents to actively engage in farming activities hence enhance farming competitiveness in Chepyuk ward.

Keywords: Local Culture,Land Administration, Farming Competitiveness

Introduction

Several land conflicts have resulted in environmental migration in Africa. For example, 600 000 people moved from central/northern Ethiopia to the southwest/west regions because of drought and famine which resulted in nomad-farmer conflicts over land. During the early1990s in Rwanda 1.7 million people moved from the central regions and rural south to northern Rwanda and DRC as a result of ethnic conflicts and genocide which were exacerbated by land and water scarcity and degradation. Declining access to land, or rather to the returns from human uses of land, is seen as a key process that causes livelihood contraction and hence increases the risk that people will join armed groups (Bernstein, 2005).

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