Population pressure in Gusii is causing a strain on land. Many things have changed in Gusii-land for the last two decades. In the early 90s, the Gusii people used to have plenty of land, food and other resources. That has now changed. Currently, population pressure in Gusii is growing, land has been sub-divided into smaller portions and many households are suffering from hunger.
Hunger has made people to be less generous as compared to the time of our childhood. In the 1990’s and early 2000’s we used to attended church camp meetings where food and drinks would flow more freely than now. We used to consume plenty of boiled maize, uji, githeri, boiled sweet potatoes, ripe bananas and tea. Most of the time, the food would go round. Today I was at Nyamasebe Camp Center where I was surprised that food is not a shareable commodity anymore.
Land scarcity
Most of the households have limited pieces of land which has seen an increase in the number land boundary conflicts increase. A number of people are trying to expand the land boundaries using illegal means such as slowly but surely moving the agreed boundary. This has caused a lot of animosity, fights or even deaths among neighbors and family members.
Land is one of the most valuable natural resource as well as a factor of production classified alongside labor and capital. When a man has security of land tenure, they have capacity to progress in life by acquiring loans which can be used as capital to establish businesses. That way, they slowly achieve economic prosperity.
One of the goals that the world is try is to end poverty in all its forms. We cannot end poverty when individuals and communities are squatters on their ancestral lands. People who have security of land tenure can develop their lands without fear of losing property.
The other problem associated with land is the burial of people on ancestral lands. There are no designated grave yards. This is problematic because people will be hesitant to surrender their lands by selling to industrialists for construction of factories, schools, hospitals, trading centers, malls or offices. If you have to compensate them, the cost will include the relocation of graves to new places in order to pave way for development.
Kisii is awash with blue gums which has led to drying of rivers and water springs across the villages. River Charara is an example which demonstrates the point we are trying to drive home. Numerous water springs have dried up as a result of the planting of blue gums near our rivers and wetlands. The are killing the universe in that respect. If we do not take action now, Gusiiland will end up being a semi arid place. This is possible because the region is experiencing a lot of drastic climatic changes.
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