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Abstract
This study examined the history, place and impact of commercial tobacco cultivation on ecology and environment. It also discussed perceptions of the consequent environment in Sirisia, Bungoma County using the Rational Choice Theory. The study applied this Theory to explain how the tobacco scheme initiated work on tobacco farms which in turn induced and sustained environmental change in Sirisia between 1975 and 2005. The paper holds that commercial tobacco cultivation in Sirisia, interfered with the pre-capitalist (Bukusu) harmony with the environment (nature). Against this background, the paper argues, ecological change became a permanent feature of Sirisia historiography in the period 1975-2005. The paper was based on archival research, oral interviews as well as analyzing existing literature on the impact of cash crops such as tobacco on environment.