In-Migrants and Exclusion in East African Rangelands: Access, Tenure, and Conflict

Ernestina E. Coast, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Katherine Homewood, University College London
Mick Thompson, University College London

East African rangelands have a long history of population mobility, competition over key resources, and outright conflict. The paper explores the relationship between internal migration and conflict in areas straddling the Tanzania / Kenya border, characterised by strong ecological, ethnic and socio-economic continuities, across which contrasting political and economic contexts have been superimposed. Contrasts between Kenyan and Tanzanian lands offer a controlled comparison. Changing population composition in Kenya and Tanzania Maasailand are explored, with associated patterns of resource access and control. Qualitative and quantitative method mix, including Participatory Rapid Appraisal, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, oral histories, and a single-round household survey (Tanzania: n=90; Kenya: n=157 households). Two sets of results are presented: a description of the nature and scale of in-migration; and, resource access is outlined with respect to ethnicity and migration status. Comparative data presented for both Kenya and Tanzania, and results placed in the context of other work.