REVITALIZING DRYLAND FOOD SECURITY THROUGH POLICY RE-ORIENTATION IN KENYA

The drylands of Kenya that comprise of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) make up about 80% of the total land area and are largely inhabited by agro and nomadic pastoralists. Despite the large area, their contribution to Gross Domestic Product is about 5%, mainly through livestock husbandry and dryland farming. These areas are characterized by among others; thermal stress, soil moisture deficiency, insecurity, competition over natural wherewithal and other low development indices. In addition, their physical infrastructure including roads, housing, health, education and telecommunication is wanting. The result is basically unimpressive development indicators for example poor social service provisioning. Despite the foregoing challenges, the productivity of drylands is far below its potential and resource exploitation especially by the local population is largely done from a pedestal of ignorance, leading to untold environmental degradation. One reason for the foregoing state of affairs is inappropriate planning and poor policy execution. Flowing from the foregoing, this study analyses the past dryland food policies and related blueprints, their achievements and pitfalls and finally argues for a paradigm shift in policy development and execution as part of the panacea for revitalizing dryland food security.   Article visualizations

GENDER, LAND OWNERSHIP AND FOOD PRODUCTION NEXUS IN MBEERE DRYLANDS, KENYA: IMPLICATIONS ON HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY

Land ownership gives an individual the confidence and dignity required to be active in society. Indeed, land ownership and rights are important for effective utilization of farmland for food production to alleviate food insecurity and revitalize household welfare and national development. While the foregoing is the ideal situation, the reality is that culture and gender dictates who owns land especially when customary laws seem to override any legal and policy provisions regarding land ownership, access and control. In particular, women are largely land caretakers, with men owning most of the land, titled or otherwise. Based on the foregoing, this paper sought to identify gender and land ownership structures in the context of dryland farming and their implications on household food security in the Mbeere drylands of Embu County. It utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods of social investigation and concluded that while many factors combine to determine food production and food security, inadequate access to and control of land and related resources by women in the Mbeere drylands is significant. Consequently and given the environmental and cultural milieu on which land is utilized, measures have been proposed to augment dryland farming and alleviate food insecurity in the Mbeere drylands.  Article visualizations

Kenya’s Social Development Proposals and Challenges: Review of Kenya Vision 2030 First Medium-Term Plan, 2008-2012

Kenya faces several development challenges including poverty, disease, unemployment, negative civic engagement among others. The development bottlenecks worsened following the introduction of the IMF/World Bank-propelled Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the late 1970s and early 1980s. While the SAPs had envisaged benefits, they largely became part of the problem rather than the solution to development in Kenya. Accompanying these were negative civic engagements, particularly, ethnic conflict and political maladministration especially after the re-introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s. These drawbacks notwithstanding, development planning went on culminating in the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (ERSWEC) 2003-2007 in 2002 and its successor, the Kenya Vision 2030 in 2007. While the former was implemented, the latter is on course with the First Five Year Medium-Term Plan running from 2008 to 2012 recently concluded. The blueprint is driven by three pillars, namely; The economic, social and political pillars aimed at transforming the country into a middle income nation status by 2030. In the social pillar of the Vision are envisaged development projects for social transformation of the country. This paper reviews the proposed projects in the social pillar that were to be implemented by the year 2012 and points out the possible challenges that stood on the way of the envisaged transformation and suggests the way forward