Martin S. Shanguhyia's book joins a canon of environmental histories that examine colonial efforts to manipulate Kenya's landscape. Population, Tradition, and Environmental Control in Colonial Kenya is a valuable addition to the literature in how it reveals the experiences of local Africans most affected by colonial agricultural and soil erosion policies. In Vihiga, a region that was, and remains, one of the most densely populated areas in Kenya, the Abaluyia (the ethnic group that predominates in the area), grappled with ecological problems caused by intensive agriculture. Shanguhyia argues that land shortages and the misuse of local tradition led to tensions between the Abaluyia and colonial government. These tensions manifested themselves in various ways, but they often took the form of passive resistance through the ‘weapons of the weak’ – for example, sometimes Abaluyia farmers feigned work when government officials were nearby. At times, farmers drew upon traditional social mechanisms to more actively and openly protest burdensome conservation measures.

This book traces the interactions between the colonial government and Vihiga's local inhabitants from 1900 to independence in 1963. As with other regions in Kenya, colonial policies toward agriculture, soil conservation, and land management were highly politicized; what set Vihiga's experience apart was its history of land management and the role the Abaluyia played in land politics. This is a well-researched book and the oral histories are a vital complement to the archival sources. However, the Abaluyia accounts should have played a more prominent role in the narrative or been given a separate section in the bibliography, rather than hidden in the endnotes. Nevertheless, these stories, interwoven with the colonial record, tell of the government's efforts to develop a robust rural economy and motivate the local population to engage in agricultural production to the detriment of the environment and the autonomy of the local community.

One of the strongest contributions Shanguhyia makes in his examination of colonial Vihiga is to center Abaluyia traditions of the lisanga (‘communalism’) and the maguru (the local land elders). These traditions, which were important in making decisions regarding land use, were caught between colonial concepts of ‘modern’ and what Shanguhyia termed ‘indigenous’. This dynamic shows that in Vihiga, the Abaluyia's knowledge of the land and land use practices were both conscripted into colonial policy and rejected as counterproductive to agricultural practice in the region.

Shanguhyia's analysis begins in 1900 and establishes the methods employed by the colonial government to order the land and its people. With the creation of the Local Native Councils, traditional Abaluyia maguru elders lost their ability to mediate land tenure, as Chapter One explains. At the same time, gold mining attracted migration to the region, increasing land insecurity. Chapter Two focuses on the intensification of maize production, leading to an economic boom but instigating environmental problems. Vihiga was also vulnerable to global economic fluctuations, but incentivizing Africans to grow more crops to advance the colony's agricultural market proved difficult. Vihiga experienced a dust bowl in the 1930s due to poor soil management, as discussed in Chapter Three, and American ideas were sought to mitigate soil erosion. In Kenya, the government placed the blame on overgrazing, overpopulation, and lack of bush fallowing. Chapter Four describes the coercive nature of wartime production. The Local Native Councils and local elders were given the responsibility to enforce the resulting conservation efforts, and locals resisted the policies because the ideas were poorly communicated and they were not compensated for their work. The final chapters focus on the postwar years during which time the tensions between modernity and tradition assumed an environmental focus. The maguru councils, which were supposed to revive African traditions, in fact diminished local agency over land access. Those men who returned from the war and others with missionary educations pursued more individualized approaches to agriculture and cash crop production. Shanguhyia points out that as maize declined as a viable crop in the region due to diminished soil fertility and the increased demand for land, coffee emerged as a possible alternative for many. The growing population problem caused land holdings to be subdivided further. In order to encourage farmers to resolve the land problem, coffee allotments were only granted to those farmers who would consolidate their land. This proved a less than desirable option for most, as many farmers in Vihiga opposed the consolidation rule because they did not have enough land to combine and they found the soil conservation and management schemes burdensome.

Shanguhyia points out that the land insecurity that plagued the Abaluyia during colonialism endures today, as do the difficult decisions as to which crops to grow. This book interrogates the role of tradition in the colonial landscape and the ways that both government officials and local people grappled with its meaning and place. As the conversations continue in the same communities today and among scholars, this book is a valuable contribution to the literature on the relationship between ‘indigenous knowledge’, ‘tradition’, and ‘modernity’, and how these processes shaped natural resource management and conservation policies in colonial Africa.