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Why are individuals willing to join armed groups and fight over land access?

To find answers to this question I studied a militia in the in Kenya. A key finding of interviews with 75 ex-members of the SLDF militia was that the economic importance of land for farming communities is important for understanding why land became a resource worth fighting for. As one interviewee put it: 鈥淣o land, no life鈥�. Dependence on land also explains why individuals did not leave the area and became subjected to both taxation and forced recruitment by the SLDF militia.

The economic importance of land for farming communities is important for understanding why land became a resource worth fighting for.

I presented these results recently at the bringing together Agricultural Economists and Political Scientists in New Orleans.