Land settlement programme and population redistribution in Kenya: the case of Nyandarua District

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of land settlement programme on the spatial population redistribution in the rural areas of Kenya, particularly it s contribution to the spatial population distribution in Nyandarua district, Central province, with regard to the overall success of this programme as a population policy measure aimed at correcting the spatial maldistribution of population in the rural areas. The land. under settlement programme in Nyandarua district was formerly held as large scale European owned mixed farms and since 1962 has gradually turned over to Kenya African farmers on Small Agricultural settlement holdings (plots). Nyandarua district today has a total of 52 settlement schemes with 23654 agricultural settlement plots covering an area of 510170 acres. The district has sufficiently good land soils and rainfall to-allow- f-orcash crop agriculture. It is also well serviced with transportation, marketing, medical and educational facilities. Land settlement programme has exhausted all settlement purposes in Nyandarua district. entirely a settlement district. the land available for The district is now There is a strong positive correlation between the increment in the number of settlement scheme plots and the population density over the years since 1962 in Nyandarua district. This means that with the exhaustion of land for settlement programme in Nyandarua district, population density is going to be determined by other factors other than land settlement programme such as the rate of fertility, infant and child mortality and the sub-division of the existing settlement scheme plots for sale to people from other districts in Kenya. Nyandarua district depicts an even spatial population distribution per the current administrative divisions as indicated by the index of population concentration of 2.95% for the district's 1995 estimated population size. This index however is bound to increase, hence increasing the degree of unevenness unless subdivision of the existing settlement scheme plots in the high potential areas is discouraged.