Paper short abstract:

The last four decades have seen a development boom at Kenya’s northern frontier. The construction of the Isiolo International Airport exacerbated boundary conflicts as it was built on already disputed land and along the boundary of Meru and Isiolo counties.

Paper long abstract:

The last four decades have seen a development boom at Kenya’s northern frontier and the gateway to the north, especially in Isiolo County. The rapid socio-economic changes within Isiolo municipality are due to proposed large-scale development projects such as the Isiolo International Airport and the completed Isiolo‒Moyale highway, both components of the proposed Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET). However, such developments create contestations and competition between the development ventures and the nomadic pastoral communities in Isiolo County. The paper shows that large-scale land use changes in Isiolo County, like the construction of the international airport affecting the nomadic pastoralists, exacerbated the contestations between the Kenyan government and the communities in Wabera ward and Ngaremara ward. With the airport having been built on already disputed land and along the boundary of Meru and Isiolo counties, this has triggered land tenure insecurity and conflicts associated with the compensation process between the two major communities—Borana and Meru ethnic groups along that boundary. The conundrum is that Isiolo land is not registered but under communal or customary tenure, leading to land speculation and grabbing. The north, which connects the highlands through the pastoral corridor in Isiolo, has been neglected since Kenya’s independence through policy initiatives that focused on economic development in geographical spaces supporting horticultural production.