Wilson Omalenge Ndenyele, Dr.Godffrey Nyongesa Nato, Prof. Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle, Prof. Dr.Halimu Shauri Suleimani

Abstract

Large Scale Land Investments by both local and international investors is a game changer in agricultural production that has been accelerating for the last decade and over in rural settings in Africa. Historically, rural communities in Tana River County of Kenya have been marginalized from the benefits sharing that accrues these land deals, in which commercial interests have been impediment to access and livelihoods to their customary land. The paper shows that due lack of an approach that jointly considers land policies and investment companies in acceding to large-scale land deals, especially on the benefits sharing between various actors are prone to conflict dynamics between the land investment companies and the local communities as well as institutions involved in land deals. These challenges in the long run slow down implementation or result in the collapse of land deal investment projects. The analysis of this paper was based on primary data obtained through individual and focus group interviews from a purposively selected case study of large-scale land acquisitions Galana Kulalu food security project in the Tana River County of Kenya has been complemented with secondary sources of data from land deals. The results contribute to the growth of empirical literature on the large-scale land investments in Kenya and beyond.

Key words: Large scale land deals, large scale project, benefits sharing, Galana Kulalu, Tana River