For the past two months, I’ve been living in Kianyaga, a small rural town on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Known for producing some of Kenya’s finest AAA coffee beans, Kianyaga is part of the country’s agricultural heartland. Most residents here depend on small-scale farming for their livelihoods and rely on fresh, locally grown food, often harvested and cooked the same day. Coming from Canada, where our food systems are largely industrialized, it has been striking to live in a place where daily life is so closely tied to the land. This connection between agriculture, land, and livelihood has shaped not only my daily life but also my legal work as an intern with the ELIMU Impact Evaluation Unit.
ELIMU, founded in 2006 by McGill University Professor Matthieu Chemin from the Department of Economics, runs randomized controlled trials to study how access to legal aid, education, and electricity impacts economic development. As part of the legal team, I work directly with clients on a wide range of legal issues, including succession, land grabbing, property disputes, and family law. While these legal issues are not necessarily directly related to human rights, they have often a direct impact on people’s ability to live stable and secure lives. When clients are able to resolve their legal matters, they are often better positioned to invest in their future and participate more in the local economy.
As a law student with a background in economics, I have been especially attentive to the relationship between legal systems and economic outcomes in Kianyaga. This experience has reinforced how deeply intertwined the two disciplines are in practice. Legal challenges, such as lack of formal land titles or succession disputes, have direct and measurable effects on people’s economic behaviour. Conversely, economic constraints often determine whether someone is able to access legal remedies at all. Understanding life in Kianyaga through this dual lens has allowed me to see how justice and development operate not in parallel, but in constant interaction.
One of the most meaningful parts of my time here was a homestay with one of our clients, who is a small-scale farmer that primarily harvests coffee beans. Over the course of several days, I helped him pick ripe coffee cherries in the early morning hours, visited the local coffee factory (which is run as a community cooperative) and helped tend to livestock and crops on his farm. These tasks gave me a firsthand understanding of the daily activities that underpin the local economy, as well as the social systems that support it. Our conversations often turned to the challenges he faces, including uncertainty around land documentation, difficulty accessing credit, and the slow pace of legal proceedings. He described how unresolved land issues, or a lack of formal recognition could jeopardize not only his livelihood but also his ability to pass down the farm to his children.
This experience deepened my understanding of how the strength of legal institutions shapes economic outcomes. Secure property rights and functioning courts give people the confidence to invest, whether that means building irrigation or purchasing livestock. Credit markets, in turn, depend on the ability to use land as collateral and to enforce repayment agreements. Without that legal backbone, economic activity remains limited and insecure. In this way, access to justice and credit are essential foundations not just for economic development but also for the realization of basic human rights such as education, housing, and food security.
Through my internship, I have seen how these issues play out on the ground. Legal empowerment is not abstract, as it directly impacts how people live, work, and plan for the future. In places like Kianyaga, where much of the population operates outside formal financial systems, strengthening access to legal aid and judicial institutions can unlock long-term investment and growth. My time here has made it clear that justice is not only a moral imperative, but also a development strategy, and one that must center the everyday realities of those it seeks to serve.