Research | Consulting

Land Reform in Kenya

   

Motivated by my time working in Kenya, my MSc thesis at LMU Munich (supervisor: Prof. Mathias Bühler) and first solo-authored research paper examines clientelist land reforms in Central Kenya and the Rift Valley. I study two major land redistribution policies - the colonial era ‘White Highlands’ policy and independence era ‘Settlement Schemes’ - to examine if and how exposure to these schemes affects ‘social violence’: conflict, fear, and mistrust.

Through empirical analysis of geocoded conflict and survey data, I suggest that the long-run effects of exposure to each scheme differ, with differences driven by the respective histories of land allocation in each.

Working papers

Wilson, N. (2023). Conflict, Fear, and Mistrust in Kenya’s ‘White Highlands’. SSRN Working Paper (May 01, 2023).
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Presented at: University of Edinburgh CAS/CeSeR 2024 Annual Conference and ASAUK Conference 2024.