VILLAGES IN THE KIKUYU COUNTRY
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00109.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
| Author | O. E. B. Hughes |
170
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
PART
VI
AFRICAN LAND
TENURE
IN TERMS OF
THE
LAND
APPORTIONMENT
ACT
Apart
from
the
native reserves in which
the
Africans, in terms of
the
Land
Husbandry
Act, has security of tenure in
the
form of a right, there is another
avenue through which
the
more enlightened
and
ambitious African can acquire
land outside
the
reserves, on
the
same conditions of tenure as
the
European.
This
land
at
present comprises 95 divisions totalling over
81
million acres
and
is known as
the
Native Purchase Area.
The
Native
Purchase Area was so designated by
the
Land
Apportionment
Act of 1930
and
is defined as
land
in which only natives could acquire, lease
or occupy
land
with
certain specified exceptions where occupation by other
races was considered by
the
Governor to be for
the
benefit of natives residing
therein.
The
act
was amended
and
reframed in 1941,
but
the
amendments
were merely designed for
the
purpose of streamlining
the
administration
and
removing anomolies which
had
become apparent.
The
Native Purchase Area is controlled by an advisory
body
called
the
Native
Land
Board. The specific duties of this board are
the
preservation
of
the
principles on which
the
Land
Apportionment Act was based,
the
enforce-
ment
of
equity
in
the
conditions of
land
tenure as between Europeans
and
Africans,
the
protection of
the
African in
matters
of transfer, subdivision,
or mortgage of
land
to which he has title,
and
the
very necessary imposition
of a capability
test
on applicants for farms.
The
survey of farms allocated in the Native Purchase Area is carried
out
by,
or under
the
supervision of,
the
licensed land surveyors on
the
staff of
the
Native
Department, to
the
same high degree of accuracy as is required for title surveys
of European land. Survey diagrams are framed and lodged with
the
Registrar
of Deeds,
and
except for a few minor differences,
the
title
granted
is similar
in every respect to
that
of European landowners.
At
the
present time, over 5,000 Africans have been
granted
title to farms
averaging 170 acres each,
and
new surveys are proceeding at a
rate
of 550 per
year.
The cost of this
land
is 9s. 6d. per acre in
the
heavy rainfall areas, descending
to
about
6s. in
the
dry
belts,
and
the
farmer is allowed to extend his payments
of periods of 15
and
20 years.
VILLAGES IN
THE
KIKUYU
COUNTRY
By
O. E. B. Hughes,
District Commissioner, M vlilbasa,
Kenya.
MR.
G. MASEFIELD, in his article «Comparison between Settlement
in Villages
and
Isolated Homesteads," which appears in
the
April edition of
the
Journal of African Administration, provokes much thought,
and
a note
from a field officer who has been very intimately concerned with
the
imple-
mentation of
the
Emergency policy of village settlement in
the
Central Province
of
Kenya
for
the
Kikuyu,
may
not
be amiss. I should perhaps go further
and
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