An Analysis of Role(s) of Actors in Land Use Change in the Nairobi Rural-Urban Fringe,Kenya

Abstract

The paper was based on a research carried out at Town Council of Karuri (hereafter referred as TCK), located in Kiambu County, as representing Nairobi rural-urban fringe. The paper builds a case for ‘who’ are the actor/s in land use. It focuses on the roles of the actors in relation to land use to help answer the question ‘why land use conversions are taking place in the Nairobi fringe?’ rather than focusing on detailed characteristics and relationships of the actors themselves. This was informed by an initial cliché that no single ‘act’ can be attributed solely to a single actor and that in most cases actors are involved in more than one ‘act’ of land use. Therefore this paper focuses on actors based on their roles rather than ‘acts’ on land use. The paper in land use conversions, both non-institutional and institutional actors play important roles. The role of central government and TCK has become minimal in land transactions due to widespread use by the actors of informal ([neo]-customary) procedures.