Chapter 3 provides the historical context in which to understand land and political violence in Kenya. It does so by comparing the histories of land ownership and distribution between Kenya’s highlands and the Coast region. The chapter’s central question asks how and why practices of land allocation vary between regions. Drawing on patterns of land allocation, archival data, and in-depth interviews, the chapter argues that two styles of political leadership – the vote-seeking land patron and rent-seeking landlord – reflect different modes and logics of land accumulation and distribution that have developed over each political regime. The chapter further explains how these different modes of land distribution and the broader politics of land play out under three phases of Kenya: colonial rule and the Mau Mau civil war (1900–1962), the single party rule of Jomo Kenyatta (1962–1978), and the de facto single party rule of Daniel arap Moi (1978–2002).

Chapter 3 focuses on the negotiations concerning the decolonisation of land. It analyses how the reshaping of land transfer institutions impacted both the decolonisation process and Kenyatta’s ascension to power. The setting-up of the Central Land Board in 1961 and the peaceful decolonisation of land was central to the independence conferences. The chapter argues that land negotiations prepared the way for a centralized government, even before the debate over federalism versus centralization was settled among the Kenyan political elite. It shows that the British fear of a security breakdown not only led to the creation of centralized institutions for land transfer, but also played a significant role in their favouring Kenyatta as a leader. By doing so, the British authorities abandoned both the European settler’ and the minority ethnic groups, who were arguing for majimboism (regionalism). At independence, Kenyatta would not only be considered the guardian of political order, he would also inherit an advantageously designed institutional framework to control the most valuable political and economic resource in Kenya: land.