Sessional Paper No. 08 of 2012 on National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands

Abstract

The title of this policy is a deliberate echo of the influential Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965, which perpetuated the biased distribution of public investment established under colonial rule. Resources were directed towards the so-called ‘high potential’ areas of crop production, overlooking the wealth of lowland livestock-based economies and creating the deep inequalities in human development which we see in Kenya today. This paper does not duplicate national policies with universal relevance across Kenya. Rather, it addresses three distinct policy challenges which are particular to Northern Kenya and other arid lands: first, how to close the developmental gap between Northern Kenya and the rest of the country, which is a product of its historical experience, and in so doing strengthen national cohesion; second, how to protect and promote the mobility and institutional arrangements which are so essential to productive pastoralism; and third, how to ensure food and nutrition security across the arid and semi-arid lands, where unpredictability is certain to increase as the impact of climate change deepens. By addressing these three policy challenges, the Government will release the latent potential of the arid and semi-arid lands. In livestock, tourism, and renewable energy, and in its strategic location as Kenya’s bridgehead to the markets of North Africa and the Middle East, the region has a major comparative advantage