To leave or stay? To leave and to stay. Kikuyu migrations in Kenya

Subsequent to population growth, land scarcity and the diminishing yields, Kikuyu started a search for arable land. This migration has been extended toward areas which are unsuitable for agriculture, where survival strategies of Kikuyu migrants have been analysed. Results of the extended data collection have shown that a range of social practices within the mainly patrimonial families enable them to survive in the semi-arid savannah on the Laikipia plain (Kenya), Two strategies could be distinguished: on the levels of the individuals the mobility may be described as personal transhumance, and on the level of the domestic units as steps on the various islands of a vertical archipelago; both are characteristics of a family circulation that constitutes a migratory scheme prevailing among the Kikuyu, with a model of migratory practices which associates individual tactics and the strategies applied by domestic units (Y. D. & B. S.).