Stages in Development Policies

Abstract

The first step in the agricultural development of Kenya was the planned establishment of a dual society. The land of Kenya, comprising 220,000 square miles altogether, but only 38,000 square miles suited for arable farming and forestry and 20,000 square miles with a marginal agricultural potential, was split into two segments. The greater part, comprising not only extensive low-potential areas of bush and semi-desert, but also the greater part of the high-potential land, — the estimates vary between two-thirds and more than four-fifths — and definitely almost all the best land remained available for the African peasants and herdsmen. These African lands were called “Non-Scheduled Areas”, or the “Reserves”. The smaller part, the so-called “Scheduled Areas”, or “White Highlands” ¹, amounting to 7.6 million acres, was made available to 3,600 European farmers (some areas on the coast and in Nyanza have also been open to Asian farmers) who, in due course, helped by loans and ample labour, established a belt of modern farming stretching from Nairobi to the Uganda border².