Facing Kirinyaga:A socioeconomic history of resource use and forestry intervention in Southern Mount Kenya

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between socioeconomic

ohange and resource use in a rural Kenyan district during the past oentury. It considers how and why land use and livelihood have ohanged among the Ndia and Gichuqu Kikuyu in Kirinyaga District, a densely populatod rogion of high aqro-economic potential on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya. T.ho purpose is to illuminate the multidimensional nature and hhtoric roots of:the "crisis" of

livelihood end development in a rural Kenyan district. Speoifically, tho study concentrates on six aspects of rural lifo: demographic ch!!.r:loqeop,ocially pattorns of '1rowthand eett10mentt agrarian production, including land tenure, food and cash crop intervention!l,And Agrarian inllotitutionelnonhm Ilctivitiellauch a5 migrant wage labor bnd tradel socioeconomic and political etructuro, particularly tho iSGuticot inequality And political reprosentationl the m4nagement ot community torolltryrellorucesauen

ao woode>dcomonl!l,sacred qrovCla,and forGlltrellOrVOtlland lOCAl aMptation to crhh, lnclucUng environmrmtllls t ross, adverso ~arket conditiona, lindwartaro.

Tho proceas of ace LetaI Clllln9'8 in KidnYllgllis viewed trom an anthropolo,)icalpsupective, slf;phaaizin\tJhe linkages between aoelal structure, culture, and political economy. The study is

also concernsd with natural resources and their use in a specific social setting. It describes how agricultural and forest resources in Kirinyaga form part of a very dynamic socioeconomic system which has become increasingly integrated into the world economy and the national political arena. The research for tho study included a survey of over 570

families in four aqro-ecozones within Kiriny.aga, interviews with

key informants, and uso of local and national archives