ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE/EDITION Nr 321 - 01/04/1997

Kenya

"It's grabbiosis"

by Isaac Nyangeri, Kenya, November 1996

THEME = LAND

INTRODUCTION

Recently, in many Kenyan newspapers, one can read all about "land grabbing" which is getting worse and worse

Many people have been driven to poverty, and some have even lost their lives because of it. Families and communities are divided over the whole issue.

Some recent cases:

1) In the Coast Province (Kwale District), about fifty people joined their land together so that there could be some control over elephants which were devastating their small parcels of land. The project was also envisaged as a means of improving their standard of living. But what happened? The project could not be realized because one person claimed ownership over the whole area.
2) Prime land earmarked for military housing in Nairobi, was instead, given to influential people.
3) Up to 20,000 petty traders, operating in an open-air market in Nairobi, were evicted so as to create space for a property developer.
4) A member of Parliament, Bishop Daniel Tanui, was quoted as saying that Kericho (Rift Valley) town's Green Stadium and the Agricultural Society of Kenya's showground, had been allocated to "politically powerful individuals".
5) Another member of Parliament, Mr George Kapten, accused the Kenyan government of allocating pieces of land to party loyalists and "friendly" politicians. Also, to those who had defected from other parties.
6) A section of cemetery acquired at KSH 345 million was allocated to "political bigwigs", to be resold to the Kenya Reinsurance Corporation.
7) On 2 May 1996, a newspaper carried a long list of the names of those who had been allocated government land illegally. The names included Cabinet Ministers, permanent secretaries, members of Parliament and other "big shots".
8) A court was said to have stopped a survey firm from demarcating a plot, after two hundred inhabitants had complained that the local county council had colluded in selling the land to a developer.
9) A Member of Parliament, Mr Douglas Mbela, complained of a plot by the Ministry of Lands to sell land belonging to peasants, to outsiders.
10) On 5 May 1996, the chairman of the Kenyan Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers, Mr Joshua Mwendwa, appealed to the government to revoke the allocation of a large section of a police station to private developers.
11) On May 6, 1996, one thousand people in Kericho (Rift Valley Province) were reported to have marched in protest against the allocation of an urban plot by the Director of Surveys, to an influential person.
12) On 7 May 1996, a newspaper reported a plot by a Divisional Officer, acting in collusion with tricksters, to con Kenyans of Ksh24 million, by purporting to sell them three hundred acres of land, belonging to Moi International Sports Complex, Kasarani.
13) On 9 May 1996, sixteen game wardens from the Kenya Wildlife Service stopped a German tycoon, Rudi Gaugg, from clearing a protected beach plot for "tourism development". Mr Gaugg later said that the Commissioner of Lands had sold the piece of land to him at an annual rent of Ksh 95,000.
14) On 11 May 1996, one hundred inhabitants slept - if they could sleep - in the cold, after an italian investor demolished their structures for "development".
15) On 16 May 1996, a parent was injured as the police tried to stop a demonstration against a tycoon who had fenced off part of a school for "development".

Further cases

All this happened in less than two months! As noted from the above list, any piece of land can be "grabbed", even a cemetery! Some Muslims accused their local councillor of acquiring a graveyard, compelling them to transport the bodies 40 kms away for re-burial. Churches and Mosques, too, have received similar "treatment".
Land belonging to orphanages, was "grabbed" by a politician who had been sent by local residents, to go to Nairobi and obtain ownership documents of the cemetery, on their behalf. Instead, he registered the plot under his name and three others.
And even hospitals have not been spared. As one newspaper reports: "No piece of public land is safe any more from the prying eyes of the well-heeled grabbers".
The general feeling in Kenya is, that senior officials are deeply immersed in the illegal deals. There have been numerous complaints about allocating public land to private individuals. So much so, that a presidential directive was issued, ordering documents dealing with irregular land allotment, to be withdrawn. President Daniel arap Moi directed the Commissioner of Lands to recall title deeds for public utility plots that might have been allocated to individuals, erroneously.
Some people, among them, Professor Mkangi, formerly a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, believe that the Lands Commission Office should be done away with. "We have to rein in land speculators, (the so-called "developers"), by dismantling the office of the Commissioner of Lands and empowering communities to take control of their basic common resource - the land. Should we fail to do so, Kenya will turn into a country of beggars, eventually leading to social dissent and instability".

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