Nairobi’s expansion is swallowing up rural land: new book reveals the impacts on families

What the report says

A new book by economic and political anthropologist Peter Lockwood argues that Nairobi’s growth is reshaping nearby rural communities in Kiambu County, where rising land prices are pushing some families to sell small plots that were once tied to farming and inheritance. The Independent Uganda reported that the book, "Peasants to Paupers: Land, Class and Kinship in Central Kenya," draws on six years of research around the edge of the Kenyan capital and focuses on how urban expansion is changing land ownership, family relations and livelihoods.

According to the article, the pressure is especially visible in peri-urban areas north of Nairobi, where smallholdings have been divided over generations and are becoming more valuable as the city spreads outward. Lockwood says the result is not only a land market boom, but also growing tension within households over who controls ancestral property and whether it should be sold. The piece also highlights conflicts involving gender and inheritance, including disputes in which male heirs try to exclude sisters from land claims.

The report says the book links these changes to deeper historical patterns, including colonial land dispossession and long-term land scarcity. It also situates the problem in today’s economic climate, where younger people face insecure work and limited prospects. The author argues that these conditions are feeding frustration, hopelessness and social strain among youth.

The article presents the book as a warning about the human costs of urbanisation around Nairobi and as a call for wider debate on land inequality and state support for struggling households.