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Group ranches were first established in Kajiado District in the south o f Kenya in the 1960s under the Land (Group Representatives) Act o f 1968. Under this act freehold title deeds to a legally defined area o f land were allocated to the primary users within each area as a collective group (Grandin, 1991). All land in the group ranch is shared by all registered members and in theory a member is allowed to establish a manyatta or shamba, or to graze his livestock, anywhere in the ranch. In reality, the system o f primary user areas still applies within the group ranches {pers obs., Potkanski, 1993). In Samburu District, the group ranches are still held in Trust by the County Council (GoK, 1986)

The theory and practice behind group ranches are discussed extensively by Helland (1980), Raikes (1981), Galaty (1980; 1994), Davis (1970) and Campbell (1993). In summary, group ranches were intended to act as a vehicle for technical innovation. By privatising land ownership and limiting movement, it would be easier to target pastoralist groups for state programmes and the land could be used as capital to back loans for structural improvements such as water development, livestock dipping and handling equipment, and breed improvement. In practise these objectives were not fulfilled due in part to a combination o f ecological non-viability and lack o f social cohesion within the ranches (Grandin, 1991; Galaty, 1980).

The Land Adjudication Department arrived in Samburu District in 1972 with the remit o f establishing a system o f group ranches as had been started in the Maasai areas in the south. The first five group ranches were allocated in 1973 and by 1983, 65% o f the district was adjudicated to private owners or grazing co-operatives (Bronner 1990).

In two group ranches in the south west o f the plateau, a considerable area o f each ranch has been collectively leased to commercial wheat farmers who come from outside the district. These farmers, while potentially increasing pressure on the plateau’s resources by restricting access to extensive areas o f land, are not considered major users o f the forests (Fratkin, 1994).

Shambas, small 0.5ha to 2ha plots often surrounded by fencing made o f cedar posts and/or branches from small trees and shrubs, are scattered throughout the group ranches and separated by extensive areas o f grassland and shrub or forest (Figure 2-5). While the land is being cultivated, the cultivator has usufruct rights to the shamba and all food grown in it. As soon as s/he moves away to another area even within the group ranch, the land becomes communal again. The same rules apply to trees that are planted. In the past this is thought to have dissuaded people from planting trees. Today, trees are being planted by some as a way o f establishing user rights to a particular area in the hope that if the land is adjudicated they will have first rights to the title deeds o f that particular area (Samburu elder, Ngorika, comm.).

A trend towards the division o f group ranches into privately owned individual plots, started in Maasai land to the south, has also begun in Samburu District (Fratkin, 1994; Galaty, 1993; 1994). The process has already been completed in two group ranches on the Lerroki Plateau, is currently underway in several o f the group ranches and is under discussion in others. In the areas where adjudication has taken place, much o f the land has been leased to a few individuals and companies and converted to large scale wheat cultivation. The owners o f the land, previously registered members o f the group ranches, have kept small patches o f their individual plots for subsistence

cultivation and are keeping most o f their stock with friends or relatives in other parts o f the Division or District. Grandin et a l (1991) propose the growing trend towards sédentarisation and individualisation o f production stems from a desire to stake a claim in a piece o f land should sub-division o f group ranches into individually owned plots occur (also Campbell, 1993).

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In the two adjudicated ranches, most forest resources were limited to small areas o f riverine forest and shrub. These areas were parcelled out with the rest o f the land and are now used and managed by the individuals in whose land they fell. In the group ranches now in the process o f transition to individual holdings there are extensive areas o f forest currently under management o f the group ranch. It is not clear what will happen to these areas in the future. If they are parcelled out as before it is likely that much o f this forest will be cleared.

O f the private ranches, many are maintained as cattle and smallstock ranches.

However, there is a continuing shift towards wheat cultivation which has proved to be very profitable in the area.