Documentary examines Kenyan communities’ fight over land taken under colonial rule

A documentary exploring Kenyan communities’ efforts to reclaim ancestral land taken during British colonial rule is being released in the United Kingdom. Kikuyu Land was directed by Kenyan filmmaker Bea Wangondu and US filmmaker Andrew H Brown. It examines the history of the so-called White Highlands, where communities were displaced and fertile land was converted into plantations for tea and other crops.

The film follows Wangondu’s investigation into her family’s land and the efforts of a man identified as Mungai to reclaim land belonging to his ancestors. The filmmakers connect those personal stories with the continued presence of multinational tea companies and other corporations on land once taken from local communities. A 1902 law classified large areas of ancestral land as Crown land, allowing the colonial government to sell or lease it to settlers.

Communities were moved to marginalised reserves. A later redistribution programme transferred some land to Kenyan families, but the supplied material says political elites and foreign corporate interests retained much of it. The film also examines claims by Kipsigis and Talai communities over land from which their ancestors were violently evicted to make way for tea plantations.

UN special rapporteurs expressed concern in 2021 about the lack of effective remedies and reparations. Kikuyu Land premiered at Sundance in January and had its UK festival premiere at Sheffield DocFest in June. It is scheduled to screen at the NBO film festival in Nairobi in October.