Determinants of land tenure security among small-holder farmers in rural Kenya: An ordered probit analysis

Land tenure security is key to rural transformation, diversification, increased agricultural production, and environmental sustainability. However, its determinants are still unclear, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where land tenure insecurity is widespread. The study evaluated the determinants of land tenure security using the ordered probit model. Using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires, data were collected from 366 respondents in Narok county, Kenya using a multistage sampling procedure. From the results, household heads in the high land tenure security category were older, more educated, owned relatively larger land sizes, and had higher maize productivity with somewhat smaller household sizes than those in the low and medium land tenure security categories. Furthermore, age, marital status, education level, number of years the household had stayed on the land, land fertility, land acquisition through purchase, land size, the distance from the home to the parcel and household size were the main determinants of land tenure security. Pro-women and youth policies should be enacted to enhance land tenure security. Moreover, laws that protect marital property rights should be put in place and ease the land purchase procedure by reducing transaction costs and weeding out corruption.