Within the context of social resilience in social ecological systems (SES), this thesis looks at the role of litigation in addressing the vulnerability context and thereby enhancing the social resilience of the Il Chamus community who reside in the politically bounded social ecological system of the Baringo lowlands of Kenya.
The Il Chamus, a Maa-speaking community settled at the banks of Lake Baringo, have over the years managed to sustain a livelihood based on irrigation, agro-pastoralism and fishing . They have shown remarkable resilience and ability to survive detrimental environmental dynamics and profound changes in their social and political conditions.
The theoretical basis of this thesis is social resilience analysis within the framework of social ecological systems.
It therefore looks into the processes of environmental change within the Il Chamus SES, identifying its environmental resources, vulnerability context and sources of its social resilience.
The thesis includes a study of Il Chamus history and social organization and an ecological and social profile of Lake Baringo. It identifies the main factors driving the vulnerability context of the Il Chamus SES as the invasive plant Prosopis juliflora, ethnically instigated violence and political as well as economic marginalization by the state.
As a study in political ecology, this thesis also looks at the political power dynamics inherent in the environmental governance of the Il Chamus SES. In this connection, litigation is presented as negotiating the unequal power relations between the state and the Il Chamus as well as among the Il Chamus and therefore mitigating the unfavourable outcomes of environmental governance. This study therefore locates the resilience building capacity of litigation in the process of environmental governance.
A legal analysis of cases brought by the Il Chamus against the government is used to illustrate the role of litigation in resilience building. The thesis analyses the political and legal strategies of the Il Chamus and describes how they transform political interests into legally claimable rights that appropriate international legal concepts linked to indigenous identity.
Finally, the thesis presents arguments showing that the use by the Il Chamus of litigation grounded on ethnic identity and social institutions has been instrumental in enhancing their social resilience
