"Ni Mashamba Enyi Wapumbavu!!"

[Onyango Oloo]

Onyango Oloo Grapples With the Land Question in Kenya...

216.17.145.92/uploads/2005/05/twatakanini.mp3


PART ONE:

Kibaki Finally Getting Respect

From: Yatima - Thu, Oct 20, 8:04 PM
I must find out if Karl Rove is now on the Kibaki team. The speech on Mashujaa Day was superb. What was more brilliant is the manner in which he stole the show after the near debacle at Koitalel's celebration. It was brilliant idea to declare a national holiday day to allow people to participate in the referendum. Now the Oranges are circling wagons crying foul. I am left to wonder if they were contemplating a low turnout or simply voter suppression. One for the Bananas. I echo his sentiment about voting for Kenya's future; old constitution v/s new constitution.

Yatima

The above excerpt is from an American based contemporary who I brushed shoulders with in my short-lived stint at the University of Nairobi in the early 1980s. On a personal level I would count him as a friend that I respect.


Politically of course, we are now in polar camps. One of the good things that this referendum campaign has done is reignite the spirit of spirited political discourse and feisty democratic debates. Of course we know that there are those who have taken their cues from the grey haired toilet mouths in the Kibaki government to regurgitate their ethnic laced chauvinist turd on half a dozen political reforms- but I spoke about that crowd in my last digital outing and will say no more.

But I wanted to engage my age-mate "Yatima" for just a few minutes. No, scratch that. I already did- last night. What I will do this morning is to recycle my edited response to him that I gave in a series of staccato replies on the Kenya Talk forum. I have just consolidated them into one passage:

Yatima, Platitudes Do Not a Patriot Make

In response to Kibaki Finally Getting Respect posted by Yatima
From: Onyango Oloo - [e-mail] Thu, Oct 20, 10:54 PM

Reciting a "brilliant" speech on Kenyatta Day does not negate the FACT that earlier this year, Bildad Kaggia died covered by a mountain of debts he would not be facing if he had been on a state pension; earlier this year, Kimathi's widow was locked out of the Madaraka day celebrations; last week an aging Mau Mau General called Wacera was calling on Kibaki to finally give her some land;

Grandstanding at Koitalel's centenary celebrations and mouthing platitudes at the Nyayo Stadium does not cover up for the utter bankruptcy with which the Kibaki government has approached according freedom fighters due respect.

Do you consider Jaramogi Oginga Odinga a bona fide freedom fighter, an actual Mzalendo, Yatima?

If so, what do you make of the snide remarks lobbed Jaramogi's way by among others, former colonial functionary Simeon Nyachae, and the dyed in the wool neo-tribalists Mukhisa Kituyi and Musikari Kombo?

Really, if we really get down to the brass tacks, what was really profound or substantive about that speech?

To imagine that Kibaki will only try to rise to the "patriotic" occasion because the Yes Campaign propaganda of fears, tribalism, lies is not working is to watch a political chief executive on the ropes, fighting to remain in the fight using cheap populism and threadbare demagoguery, it is certainly not the crows of a triumphant peajogoo. That is what is so tragic about the Bananiacs and their cheering sections- they cannot see that this is more than just a PR exercise- it is the beginnings of a profound democratic rumbling that is going to shake this country for some time.

What I have found to be slightly amusing is the very short-term blinkered vision of people who support the NAK cabal- confusing ephemeral tactical breathing rooms for strategic breakthroughs...

I had opted to ignore this topic today but I just had to jump in.

On the National Holiday on Referendum Day thing...

Here is an excerpt from an open letter that I sent to President Kibaki on Friday July 29, 2005:

"Step Seven: Declare the Referendum Day a PUBLIC HOLIDAY to allow Kenyan workers to cast their vote. Do not hold it on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday because it is certain to interfere with the worshipping patterns of Muslims, Jews, Christians (Adventists and others on Saturday) and other faith communities;"

SOURCE:

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2005/07/open-letter-to-president-kibaki.html

My point is that the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT is far from being original and may actually be the mere implementation of a months long suggestion from a well-known Orange activist called Onyango Oloo.

By the way, Karl Rove IS THE Goebbels of America-

A man who manipulated rural ignorance, white racism, far right Christian fundamentalism, putrid homophobia and repugnant sexism to reinforce the vote stealing operation in Ohio- is certainly not a name I would link with an ETHICAL, value-based DEMOCRATIC campaign.

But I agree with you that the tribalists and the fear mongers in the NAK camp have certainly borrowed generously from Karl Rove's bag of dirty tricks...

FALSE SWALI: "Old Constitution" Vs. Wako Mongrel....

It is a testimony to the sheer contempt that the Yes Camp has for the intelligence of the average mwananchi that they think that people have forgotten Kibaki's near three year foot dragging as some of his sidekicks dismissed the clamour for a new constitution as just noise because they were focused on growing the economy. Some of those contemptuous remarks were posted on this very forum by some of the very people who have suddenly woken up to realize that Kenya needs a new constitution. Where were those people in July 2004 when people like

Martin Shikuku and Wahu Kaara were being tear-gassed while

Katiba Watch colleagues like Koitamet ole Kina were simultaneously shot at for their temerity in demanding for just that, a new constitution for the struggling Kenyan people?

We have had a document ready to go as a new constitution for more than a year and a half- it is called the Bomas Draft which was not sired in secret by a shady cabal intent on ushering in an imperial presidency.

What we are noticing is not unlike Orwellian Newspeak- where the OPPONENTS of a true democratic constitutional dispensation- the true leftovers from the one party era- have we forgotten the ultimatum to "merge" all the parties of NARC into a new Kibaki led KANU LIKE machine- are today the ones who are asking Kenyans to choose between a firing squad and a guillotine.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto




CONTINUED....

[Onyango Oloo]

PART TWO:

Yesterday, October 20, 2005, I made a point of studiously staying away from commenting at length on the ongoing referendum campaign- until I felt compelled at the end of the day to jump into the cyber ring to spar with my buddy Yatima for a few minutes in the closing minutes of our Eastern Time Zone day here in Central Canada. I was conscious that this day, long used to lionize and mythologize Kenyatta as the "Baba wa Taifa"- a baba without a mama more or less- was finally being mainstreamed as what it really should be- Mashujaa Day.

In 2005, Mwai Kibaki and his side kicks have been voraciously collecting plaudits and laurels for allegedlyleading the post-referendum charge to rename this national day.

The HISTORICAL evidence points to another direction- to other less heralded, but more credible political actors who should claim credit for this victory.

For decades, members of the Kenyan Left- Micere Mugo, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Maina wa Kinyatti, Karimi Nduthu, Kang'ethe wa Mungai, Kamonye Manje, Gupta Ngang’a Thiongo, Ndungi Githuku, Gitau Wanguthi, Willy Mutunga to cite just a few from the top of my head- have been agitating for October 20th to be renamed either Mau Mau Day, Wazalendo Day, Freedom Fighters Day or as it turns out Mashujaa Day. Mashujaa Day, far from being a creation of the wily Wako, is actually lifted word for word from this section of the Bomas Draft:

www.kenyaconstitution.org/docs/chapter2.htm

Just in case your mouse was not working, that is Chapter 2, 11 (c) of the Bomas Draft.

Now if you scan this list of the delegates to the National Constitutional Conference:

www.kenyaconstitution.org/dloads/NCC%20delegates%20list.xls

You will notice among other things, that it is a document which is 22 pages long and has 629 names












(with a couple of glaring vacancies like delegate #002).

and

Chair of the Bomas Devolution Committee, Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai

The other thing you will notice is that the MPs are listed first- perhaps to ensure that THEY were the first to collect their Bomas marupu rupu every Friday. The third thing you will notice that it was a very diverse list of delegates if you go by the categories: MPs (35.45%); District representatives (33.54%); NGOs (3.65%); Professional Organizations (2.38%); Women’s Organizations (3.81%) Political Parties (2.54%); Religious Organizations (3.81%) with the CKRC bringing up the rear. Of course there was considerable overlap- a well known woman and politician like

Rose Waruhiu went to Bomas as a Professional Organizations delegate while the Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, yes, the very same

Prof. Makau wa Mutua who oozes an endless brook of venom against the vile political class was Bomas delegate # 584 as the official representative of the Safina Political Party.

What has been absolutely weird and flabbergasting is to contemplate the phenomenon of a big chunk of former Bomas delegates trash talk and dismiss a document they spent months in putting together.

For instance, the following Bomas Delegates had direct input in coming up with that Mashujaa clause (at least they did not actively oppose it when it was advanced by progressive and patriotic Kenyans attending the same national constitutional conference):



Delegate # 001- Mwai Kibaki;

Delegate # 010, Moody Awori;

Delegate # 149, Simeon Nyachae;

Delegate # 130, Ali Chirau Mwakwere;

Delegate # 124, Kiraitu Murungi;

Delegate # 143 Charity Ngilu;
Delegate # 035, Kyalo Kaindi; Delegate # 045 Njenga Karume; Delegate # 043 Mirugi Kariuki; Delegate # 044 Martha Karua; Delegate # 534 Mutava Musyimi; Delegate # 052, Bonny Khalwale; Delegate # 599 Leslie Mwachiro; Delegate # 100 Boniface Mganga; Delegate # 007 Jimmy Angwenyi; Delegate # 039 Maina Kamanda; Delegate # 136, Daudi Mwiraria; Delegate # 028 Robinson Njeru Githae; Delegate # 116 Danson Mungatana; Delegate # 073 Musikari Kombo; Delegate # 068 Mwangi Kiunjuri; Delegate # 057 Kivutha Kibwana; Delegate # 067 Kipruto Kirwa; Delegate 067 Mukhisa Kituyi; Delegate # 073 Newton Kulundu and VIRTUALLY EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF THE PARLIAMENTARY YES CAMP which has been saying NO to Bomas for the last year and a half!

Can you imagine accredited delegates working on a document, agreeing to virtually the entire contents and sulking with a STAGED POLITICAL STUNT on the penultimate day of the national constitutional conference?

Frankly, I think that these petulant turncoats from Bomas would have been MORE CREDIBLE if had REFUNDED all the muthendi they fraudulently collected as delegates-not dutifully showing up at Bomas to collect their marupu rupu every single week and THEN attempting to SABOTAGE their OWN DOCUMENT just because of some narrow TRIBAL fears and insecurities.

It is simply despicable to see cheerleaders of the Banana team applaud the President for talking about our national heroes as if this is was one of "innovations" of the Wako Mongrel. Whatever is good in that mongrel has been scavenged and ripped- in the manner that we see some callous wananchi rush to the site of a road accident to rob the injured abiria of their watches and wallets instead of conducting First Aid. In the case of the Zero Draft, the patient was not even sick.

What now constitutes the Yes Camp imagined that their melodramatic walkout would lead to the collapse of Bomas.

Instead, the Zero Draft was unanimously proclaimed and acclaimed in a triumphant tear jerking climax at the Bomas of Kenya with

Prof. Yash Pal Ghai making a very emotional and moving speech.

One person in the list above that I absolutely, must go back and POKE VICIOUSLY IN THE EYE TWICE is the DOUBLE MSALITI Leslie Mwachiro.

Now we know that Kenyan politicians are vibarakala, gunias of korosho that are bought and sold like Ngilu on the neocolonial market place, but at least give credit to those Yes people who have been somehow CONSISTENT in OPPOSING the popular democratic aspirations of the Kenyan people.

Someone like Leslie Mwachiro has sunk lower than a dead turtle on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Here is someone who only months ago was among the LEADING LIGHTS of Katiba Watch, you know the group entrusted with pushing through the passage of the Bomas Draft.

Sample some of the press coverage I gleaned from the net about Leslie Mwachiro and Katiba Watch:

The information caught members of the Katiba Watch lobby group off-guard yesterday.

They had gone to meet the CKRC to press for reconvening of the fourth Bomas Constitutional consultations, only to learn that the Bill had already been assented to by the President. A stunned Elkana Odembo, with an equally shocked Martin Shikuku, Leslie Mwachiro and other Katiba Watch lobbyists, wondered why the President’s decision had not been communicated to the public. Sources said a small clique in the know of the new developments had been given a stern warning not to give the information to the media, until the Act was gazetted. - Virtual Kenya, January 25, 2005

Katiba Watch official Leslie Mwachiro claimed he was slapped by a police officer near Parliament Buildings, but the report could not be independently verified.
"The rival Kamukunji rally was a ploy to cancel ours. We don’t understand why police licensed the rival rally, yet we had notified them more than a month ago," Mwachiro protested.

And it emerged yesterday that police were hunting for officials of Katiba Watch lobby group.
The lobby's chairman, Mr Leslie Mwachiro, said he had received calls from officers at Nairobi Central Police Station inviting him to visit the station and secure release of those arrested following the skirmishes.
Several other officials of the group, including Mr Koitamet ole Kina and Suba Churchill, have also been contacted in what Mr Mwachiro describes as a scheme by the police to lure them into a trap.
"They called me at 12.45 pm and have also talked to my colleagues. But I told them (police) that I will not go and if they want me let them come to my house," he said.
He condemned what he termed as an attempt by police to brand rioters and looters arrested during the riots as members of Katiba Watch.
"They are trying to intimidate the wrong people. They cannot say it was our people who were looting in the city centre when we were heading to Uhuru Park," Mr Mwachiro said- Nation, July 5, 2004



Katiba Watch chairman Leslie Mwachiro said the lobby had received the full backing of British High Commissioner Edward Clay. Mwachiro said Clay recently told the lobby to go ahead and lead Kenyans into adopting a new Constitution. - Standard July 25, 2004


Activists say they won’t allow government to push through a version of the constitution that does not reflect the views of Kenyans.

"We are soon going to embark on a nationwide campaign to hold civic education, using all media available – including television, radio, newspapers (and) community gatherings...It is important that people make informed choices when voting," says Ombati.

His words are echoed by Leslie Mwachiro, chairman of Bomas Katiba Watch: a group made up of delegates to the NCC that is lobbying for the original draft document to be adopted.

Mwachiro has pledged "mass action" next year in support of Katiba Watch’s demands, saying "It is for Kenyans to decide when they want a new constitution and not a few people within the government.”- quoted by Joyce Mulama in her December 30, 2004 dispatch.

"We have basically come to a truce. We can have our rallies and take responsibility for whatever will happen," Leslie Mwachiro, the chairman of Katiba Watch, told reporters after meeting Nairobi Provincial Police Officer King'ori Mwangi.

Mwachiro said police had assured the group that the simultaneous rallies it planned to hold in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu on Friday would not be interfered with. - IRIN News, July 5, 2004

Katiba Watch, meanwhile, said it had called off a number of political rallies it had planned to hold across the east African nation starting on Friday.

"We are calling off the countrywide rallies, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, because we are being infiltrated by other groups sympathetic to the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK)," Katiba Watch Chairman Leslie Mwachiro told AFP- Media Corp News, July 8, 2004


Please memorize the last sentence from the last quote above because I am going to come back to it momentarily.

Now, here is some more recent news concerning Mr. Mwachiro:


Bomas team divided over proposed law

Story by SUNDAY NATION Reporter
Publication Date: 10/9/2005
Deep divisions have emerged within a pressure group, bringing together former delegates at the National Constitution Conference, over the proposed new Constitution.

The officials of the Bomas Katiba Watch are split in the middle with the coordinator, Mr Leslie Mwachiro, supporting the proposed new law, while former Butere MP Martin Shikuku and Mr Koitamet ole Kina are against it…..on Friday, Mr Mwachiro, who is also the chairman of the Chama Cha Majimbo and Mwangaza, abandoned the Bomas Draft for the proposed new Constitution.

Said Mr Mwachiro: "We had anxiously wanted a new Constitution, and I still believe that whatever is remaining could be amended. We are ready to fight for it. But half a glass or half a loaf of bread is better than nothing."

Mr Mwachiro singled out the chapter on devolution in the new Constitution for praise, saying the 74 districts would all have a devolved government to speed up development.


YES camp launches new initiative

By Peter Ngare Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (Saturday, October 08, 2005)

A new initiative has been launched to boost the YES campaigns on the proposed Constitution.

The Inter-Parties forum was launched Friday to coordinate campaign activities for political parties supporting the proposed Constitution.

NARC elections coordinator Alex Mureithi said the secretariat will coordinate activities for all 14 constituent parties in the ruling coalition supporting the YES campaign.

Speaking during the launch of the secretariat, Mureithi said the forum also constitutes 23 non-parliamentary political parties.

A leading member of the Katiba Watch initiative Leslie Mwachiro supported the proposed Constitution saying the contentious issues could be amended after the referendum.

Mwachiro said it was more prudent to accept the document than to reject it.

Hold it RIGHT THERE.

Here follows, my volley of maswali for Leslie Mwachiro:

Shujaa Mwachiro: Ulivuka Daraja Lini?
Mzalendo Mwachiro, was “money poured” and did you scoop it up with a ndoo?
Mwananchi, ni lini ulifikia uamuzi wa kusaliti wandani wenzako akina Wahu, Odembo na Shikuku?

Now, we all know Kenyan politicians are spineless, but somehow wananchi had higher expectations from THE Coordinator of Katiba Watch.

How does one move from braving tear gas and police rung'us in the streets to coddling with the very forces that used to order those riot askaris onto the streets?

Well, a clue may be provided by that sentence that I suggested that you should commit to memory:

"…we are being infiltrated by other groups sympathetic to the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK)."

No truer words have been uttered in Kenya this year.

My question then becomes:

Was Leslie Mwachiro infiltrated by NAK or did Leslie Mwachiro LEAD the NAK infiltration of Katiba Watch?

The fact that he is working hand in glove with the same Kibaki nephew who was part of 2002 Presidential Campaign would lead me to believe that Leslie Mwachiro was a high asset agent of influence as they say in the CIA.

I am glad he has removed the mask to show us the real grotesque political contortionist that we now see.

In any case, I think it is time to abandon the corpse of Leslie Mwachiro to rot in that overcrowded political mortuary infested with political wagongaji, matapeli, wasaliti, discards and sycophants.

CONTINUED...

[Onyango Oloo]

PART THREE:


I wanted to talk about an issue that has been hugging and hogging the headlines for the last week or so:


The spate of Presidential give aways.

We all know how Mwai Kibaki ignored a valid court order to dish out thousands of title deeds to the Ogiek in the Rift Valley. What is less publicized is the fact that the Ogieks through, Charles Saina Sena one of their main spokespeople rejected the Presidential zawadi IN ADVANCE stating inter alia:

The Ogiek therefore, shall not accept the government directive, as we cannot be treated like hungry dogs that can be fed with poisoned meat and will still eat only to die. The directive by the government is like meat laced with poison and the Ogiek has already detected the poison and we shall not therefore partake it.

Like the rest of Kenyans the Ogiek will vote NO in the referendum to determine their future without being coerced or given false promises. The Ogiek people want to be part of the larger Kenyan populace that want to see a better Kenya for all and where the rule of law is paramount. Even if they were to accept any title, that will not change their stand on the referendum.

We are thus, challenging the president to:

1. Publish the list of the 12,000 Ogiek and their clans.
2. Indicate clearly which land they are giving out stating geographical locations.
3. Inform the world the criteria used to identify the Ogiek and the land in question.
4. To understand that there are pending court cases over land between the Ogiek and the government.

The right to self-determination is fundamental in achieving social, economic and political rights and that is why the Ogiek reject in toto the Wako draft, due to excess powers of the president, absence of four levels of devolution and the land question.

It is too late Mr. President the plane is airborne.

SOURCE:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1129573062

Another statement that very few people paid attention was this snippet from this obscure Kenya Times story:

AN 80-year-old freedom fighter has appealed to President Mwai Kibaki to intervene and ensure that war veterans were given state land to settle. The freedom fighter, General Wacera Githinji from Mwototo village in Saba Saba location of Maragwa District told KNA in Murang’a yesterday that she was a founder member of the Kenya Iregi Gikuyu na Mumbi Group which fought for Kenya’s independence and was promised land, which she never got. The frail woman with failing eyesight and hearing problems said that the founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta had been sympathetic to their landlessness situation but died before he could settle the fighters. She said she and another freedom fighter, Mungai Njuya, who has since died, were leaders of the group which had 115 members. The war veteran at the Aberdare ridges and the Mt Kenya forest during the struggle for independence lamented that efforts to have the Maragwa Member of Parliament, Elias Mbau, take her to the president had failed.


A third story which disappeared with hardly a trace was the IPS dispatch from Kenya’s own Joyce Mulama (in my opinion, she is right up there at the forefront of our country’s best social justice oriented writers):

Land Battle Moves to the Courts

by Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Oct 18 (IPS) - Displaced in the course of one administration, left landless by the next, Wanjiku Njoroge Rumiritu has finally turned to Kenya's courts for redress.

She and about 500 other complainants filed a suit against the government earlier this month, in a bid to be resettled on land they were forced from more than a decade ago, when violence swept the western Rift Valley province.


Read the rest of Ms. Mulama’s dispatch below:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1129668668


How many of us have been paying attention to the calls from Yes Supporters at the Coast that they too, could do with or one to handouts of land and the associated title deeds?

What am I trying to say, I hear some of you ask.

This is what I am saying, not trying to say:

By playing political poker with the very volatile mashamba card, President Kibaki is setting the stage for a countrywide rural based national UPRISING based on land rights and agrarian reforms.

Many people think that Onyango Oloo is alarmist, way over the top- until subsequent events vindicate me a few months down the road.

So let me repeat my cautionary tale:

President Kibaki has set the stage for a major political storm that will make the current orange/ banana ping pong contest look like a harmless pillow fight in a kindergarten during nap time.

Here is why:

At the root of our struggle for freedom, our quest for national independence, our aspirations for a progressive democratic dispensation is the historically nagging question of land, equitable ownership and distribution of natural and national resources and the proper equilibrium between sustainable development and respect for our natural environment.

What gave birth to the entity we now know as Kenya?

Land grabbing, forced labour, compulsory taxation, confiscation of livestock, destruction of subsistence crops, introduction of capitalist oriented commercial farming, transforming communal peasant land owners into early colonial farm hands; the expropriation of our agricultural, mineral and natural surplus value to the colonial metropoles.

Why do we remember Lord Delamare?

Simply because he was a notorious land grabber!

Why did Basil Criticos flee his Taveta parliamentary seat?

Simply because those squatters were coming for theirs.

Why is Amos Kimunya reluctant to implement the findings of the Ndung'u Land Commission?

Read this story by Otsieno Namwaya and reflect on its political implications which go way beyond and across the Orange/Banana divide:

Friday October 1, 2004

Who owns Kenya?
________________________________________
EXCLUSIVE
By Otsieno Namwaya, East African Standard

Kenya’s two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country.

A residual class of white settlers and a group of former and current power brokers in the three post independent regimes follow them closely while a few businessmen and farmers, many with either current or past political connections, also own hundreds of thousands of acres.

The extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres — approximately the size of Nyanza Province — according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Kibaki and Moi families also own large tracts of land though most of the Moi family land is held in the names of his sons and daughters and other close family members.

Most of the holders of the huge parcels of land are concentrated within the 17.2 per cent part of the country that is arable. The remaining 80 per cent is mostly arid and semi arid land.

In fact, according to the Kenya Land Alliance, more than a half of the arable land in the country is in the hands of only 20 per cent of the 30 million Kenyans. That has left up to 13 per cent of the population absolutely landless while another 67 per cent on average own less than an acre per person.
The building land crises in the country, experts say, will be difficult to solve because the most powerful people in the country are also among its biggest landowners.

The tracts of land under the Kenyatta family are so widely distributed within the numerous members in various parts of the country that it is an almost impossible task to locate all of them and establish their exact sizes.

During Kenyatta’s 15-year tenure in State House, there was an elaborate scheme funded by the World Bank and the British Government, the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme, under which the family legally acquired large pieces of land all over the country.

Among the best-known parcels owned by Kenyatta’s family, for instance, are the 24, 000 acres in Taveta sub-district adjacent to the 74, 000 acres owned by former MP Basil Criticos.

Others are 50, 000 acres in Taita that is currently under Mrs Beth Mugo, an Assistant minister of Education and niece of the first President, 29, 000 acres in Kahawa Sukari along the Nairobi—Thika highway, the 10, 000 acre Gichea Farm in Gatundu, 5, 000 acres in Thika, 9,000 acres in Kasarani and the 5, 000-acre Muthaita Farm. These are beside others such as Brookside Farm, Green Lee Estate, Njagu Farm in Juja, a quarry in Dandora in Nairobi and a 10, 000-acre ranch in Naivasha.

The acreage quoted in this report is not extracted from official government records — there are none and those that exist are scattered and some cases incomplete — but are estimates based on close to a year of interviews with farm staff, independent surveyors, Ministry of Lands experts and land rights NGOs.

Other pieces of land owned by the Kenyatta family include the 52,000-acre farm in Nakuru and a 20,000-acre one, also known as Gichea Farm, in Bahati under Kenyatta’s daughter, Margaret. Besides, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, widow of the former President, owns another 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti while a close relative of the Kenyatta family, a Mrs Kamau, has 40,000 acres in Endebes in the Rift Valley Province.

It is understood that in the late 1990s, the Kenyatta family started considering the possibility of disposing of parts of the land in Nairobi.

In the lead-up to the 2002 general elections, for instance, there were indications that the family was considering selling the 100-acre piece of land in Karen. But even with that, the Kenyatta family would still own a sizeable part of Nairobi, such as the 1,000-acre farm in Dagoretti owned by Kenyatta’s first wife Wahu.

It is also understood that part of the land on which Kenyatta and Jomo Kenyatta Universities are constructed initially belonged the Criticos family. The government bought the land from him in 1972 under the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme.

It is alleged, though there is little compelling evidence, that the land was transferred to the Kenyatta family the same day Criticos sold it to the government.

Neither is it clear how much the family paid for it.

Land for the two universities was subsequently donated by the family.

Under President Kenyatta, most of the power wielders either formed or were associated with land buying companies through which they acquired huge chunks of land around the country, especially at the Coast and in Rift Valley.

They took most of the land previously owned by the former white settlers, which had initially been earmarked for resettling those who had been turned into squatters by the colonial land policies.

One of the most famous land buying companies was Gema Holdings.

Most of the people — including retired President Moi and his former Vice President, Mwai Kibaki — who had considerable political influence in the Kenyatta regime, were given the opportunity to buy as much land as they could.

One of President Kibaki’s earliest acquisitions is the 1,200-acre Gingalily Farm along the Nakuru-Solai road. He bought it in the late 1960s.

And in the 1970s, Kibaki, who was then the minister for Finance under Kenyatta, bought 10, 000 acres in Bahati from the then Agriculture minister Bruce Mckenzie. Kibaki also owns another 10, 000 acres at Igwamiti in Laikipia and 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti in Naivasha.

These are in addition to the 1,600 acre Ruare Ranch that came to the limelight when it caught fire last year.

Just next to Kibaki’s Bahati land are Moi’s 20, 000 acres although his best known piece of land is the 1,600 Kabarak Farm on which he has retired. It is one of the most well utilised farms in the area, with wheat, maize and dairy cattle.

The former President owns another 20, 000 acres in Olenguruoni in Rift Valley, on which he is growing tea and has also built the Kiptakich Tea Factory. He also has some 20, 000 acres in Molo.

He also has another 3, 000-acre farm in Bahati on both sides of the Nakuru/Nyahururu road where he grows coffee and some 400 acres in Nakuru on which he was initially growing coffee.

The former President also owns the controversy ridden 50, 000 acre Ol Pajeta Farm—part of which has Ol Pajeta ranch in Rumuruti, Laikipia. Last year, the family put out an advert in the press warning the public that some unknown people were sub-dividing and selling it.

Land transactions are ongoing and some of these farms may have changed hands.

Lands minister Amos Kimunya said yesterday the Government is formulating a land policy, which will address the question of idle land.

"If it is lying idle, the Government will definitely apply the law to the letter to ensure it is put to productive use," he said.

"The policy is being developed by the people. At the end of it all, views that emerge are to be synthesised to come up with prudent policy." But the Government has no quarrel with the size of land one owns. "The question is, is that land, notwithstanding the size, being put to productive use?"



You got that?

Let me repeat Otsieno’s opening words:

Kenya’s two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country.

A residual class of white settlers and a group of former and current power brokers in the three post independent regimes follow them closely while a few businessmen and farmers, many with either current or past political connections, also own hundreds of thousands of acres.

The extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres — approximately the size of Nyanza Province — according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Read more of Otsieno Namwaya’s absolutely brilliant exposes on land grabbing in these two other pieces:

www.eastandard.net/archives/sunday/hm_news/news.php?articleid=2326


www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/print/news.php?articleid=2566

The Kenya Land Alliance has worked very hard to produce a series of empirically based, deeply analytical critical interventions on the land question in Kenya. Here is a sample:

The Efficacy of establishing a National Land Commission for Land Administration in Kenya (April 2005)

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/kla_technical_paper_1_of_2005_nlc_for_land_admin.pdf


The National Land Policy in Kenya: Critical Public Land Issues and Policy Statements

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/kla_issues_paper_3_of_2004_public_land_issues.pdf

The National Land Policy in Kenya: Addressing Historical Injustices

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/kla_issues_paper.pdf

The National Land Policy for Kenya: Critical Gender Issues and Policy Statements

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downloads/kla_issues_paper1_2004.rtf

CONTINUED....

[Onyango Oloo]

PART FOUR:

If you read the above reports you will understand why the Kibaki regime has been jittery about the activities of the Kenya Land Alliance and their Danish funder, MS Kenya. See this news report: Danes muzzle Kenya over land policies

www.afrol.com/articles/16632

afrol News, 21 June - Denmark's aid to Kenya worth euro 20 million is being withheld as the Nairobi government is accusing a Danish organisation of undermining its land policy and fuelling violence. In Denmark, the press and organisations focus on Kenya's ruling elite and their large properties as the relations between Copenhagen and Nairobi are getting sour.
Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (MS) is one of the biggest and most popular aid organisations in Denmark. Therefore, the conflict between MS-Kenya and the Kenyan government has been given much attention by Danish media and politicians during the last six months. Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller and Development Minister Ulla Tørnæs have become personally involved in the case.

Three employees of MS-Kenya, including country director Lotte Grauballe, have been told their working permits will not be renewed due to their engagement in Kenyan land policies. According to the Nairobi government, MS-Kenya has actively contributed to land conflicts in the country by promoting calls for land to be redistributed to the poor.

In December, the group was accused of engaging in "subversive and illegal activities." The accusations were specifically linked to the support provided to Kenyan civil society groups working for a pro-poor land redistribution in the country. MS Kenya has categorically refuted these government allegations through the Danish Embassy in Nairobi.

Last month, the conflict was taken to the Danish parliament, where Foreign Minister Møller told MPs he demanded that the Kenyan government "recognises and respects the legitimate and important role of civil society in development." According to Mr Møller, the question was not whether MS-Kenya had "engaged in political agitation," but that the group must be let work with Kenyan civil society groups. The Danish government finances most of MS-Kenya's operations.

In May, representatives of MS-Kenya and the Danish Embassy in Nairobi had talks with Kenya's Minister of National Security, John Michuki, without reaching any result. On 3 June, Kenya's Ambassador to the Nordic countries, Michael Kinyanjui, was summoned to the Copenhagen Foreign Ministry and told that Danish aid to Kenya would be frozen until the three aid workers had been granted a new work permit.

While the Danish government increased its pressure against Kenya, Ministers of President Mwai Kibaki's cabinet tried to soften the wording. Kenya's Water Assistant Minister, John Munyes, told 'The Standard' MS-Kenya was "doing a sterling job on the ground." He urged his cabinet colleagues to "stop intimidating and harassing the officials of MS-Kenya," because the case was not worth risking to lose Danish development aid.

In Denmark, meanwhile, the press and local organisations are continuing to use strong rhetoric against the Kenyan government. A row of articles in the Danish press focus on the injustice in Kenyan land policies and the wealth of Kenya's ruling elite. The articles are often accompanied with photos from Kenya's slums.

Also non-governmental organisations automatically support MS-Kenya's case against Kenyan authorities. "The facts are that Kenyan rulers, the national elite and foreign investors are in the process of stealing large land properties," the Copenhagen-based group Southern Africa Contact for example claimed in a statement today.

These groups urge the Danish government to "adopt a highly-profiled line of negotiations in the current issue." In which way the Danish government could muzzle its Kenyan counterpart - in addition to the freezing of Danish development aid - was however not mentioned in the statement.

The conflict between the Copenhagen and Nairobi executives is threatening to cause severe harm to the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The last time Kenyan authorities were muzzled by a Nordic country - Norway in the 1990s - President Daniel arap Moi closed down the Norwegian Embassy and said "no thanks" to Norwegian aid. This aid and diplomatic relations were only resumed in 2003.

By staff writer
© afrol News

And here is the full text of the official press statement from MS Kenya:

kenya.ms.dk/articles/press_may10_05.htm

Press statement from MS Kenya
Nairobi, 10th May 2005

In response to recent media reports, MS Kenya wishes to make the following statement:

MS Kenya is a country programme of The Danish Association for International Co-operation, an NGO based in Denmark. MS has worked in Kenya since 1968, supporting Government institutions and Civil Society organizations in fighting poverty.

In December last year MS Kenya was officially accused of engaging in subversive and illegal activities. The allegations were specifically linked to the support provided to Kenyan civil society organizations working on issues related to land in Kenya. MS Kenya has in writing categorically refuted the allegations and has through the Danish Embassy requested that a meeting between the Kenyan Government, the Danish Embassy and MS be devised. Such a meeting was scheduled for February this year, but was cancelled by the Kenyan Government in connection with the then cabinet reshuffle.

On May 3rd, news reached MS Kenya that the Kenyan Government is not willing to renew work permits for three of its international staff members, including the Country Director.

After having contributed to poverty reducing work in Kenya for more than three decades, MS Kenya sincerely regrets that the Kenyan Government takes this action without allowing MS the opportunity to answer to the allegations made, which we believe to be based on a misinterpretation of our work.

MS has for decades worked with local government to improve the plight of the handicapped and the marginalized; we supported Greenbelt Movement in the nineties and are proud to now have Prof. Wangari Maathai as a supporter of MS’ global work. Through our support, many community development activities have taken root and have enhanced livelihoods for the rural poor. The Kenyan Government has been a direct partner to MS Kenya, for instance in Turkana through the Ministry of Health.

In the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper from 2001, the government identified corruption and land as two of the most significant causes of poverty in Kenya. The inequality report from SID late 2004 confirmed this fact. Based on the same analysis, MS supports land organizations through capacity building.

MS Kenya’s work in Kenya forms part of Denmark’s overall support to the country. In Kenya, we support organizations working within the areas of Human Rights, Environment and Community Empowerment. In addition, we collaborate with the Danish Embassy in implementing Denmark’s Human Rights Programme in Kenya under which support is also given to land rights organizations. In Denmark, as well as in the countries of cooperation, MS works to realize the vision of a more just world with a more equitable distribution and utilization of available resources. Activities include international lobby, development education, youth exchange, capacity building and information and support to minority groups. All activities are in line with core principles inherent in Danish development assistance.

MS Kenya is aware that several of our partner organizations and other civil society organizations working on land issues are experiencing increasing levels of intimidation and harassment from government institutions. MS Kenya appreciates that the land rights issue is both complicated and sensitive in Kenya, and that it is the responsibility of every actor – both in the civil society and in the government – to find a balance in activities and expression that promote constructive dialogue on the issue. Exactly because issues of this nature are conflictual and complex, it is important that the civil society be allowed to play its role.

Precisely because of the complexity of issues such as this, the responsibility of governments to create and nurture a conducive environment for dialogue with civil society stakeholders.

The government is calling for the public to engage itself in constructive dialogue about overall societal reforms, including the new national land policy. MS Kenya advocates for precisely the same in partnerships with Kenyan civil society organizations. We do so based on our indivisible principles and values of law obedience and transparency to promote dialogue between stakeholders in society.

For further comments and information please contact:

Lotte Grauballe, Director of MS Kenya – 4452350 or 0720 608 566

You see when one is privy to these developments which are in the PUBLIC DOMAIN- the MS Kenya- Kibaki regime stand off; the defiant Ogiek anti-Wako Mongrel statement; the demand for land distribution from Mau Mau veterans; trenchant and critical reports from people like the Kenya Land Alliance, Otsieno Namwaya and Joyce Mulama one can only cringe in shock or lean forward in bemusement at the rather tawdry and threadbare populist pork barrel politics, reckless agrarian demagoguery and hypocritical myopic grand-standing.

I mean today, in mid October 2005, President Kibaki, one of Kenya’s major land owners is going to transmogrify into a Jose Marti of Kenya giving away land to the landless, homes for the homeless, rooms for the roomless and roofs for the roofless?

Don’t make me laugh.

When I witness the kind of spectacle that took place in Nakuru the other day with the President dishing out land to an Ogiek community which told him in WRITING almost two weeks before the big ceremony that they may still take the land AND VOTE NO; when I see the burlesque in Ukambani where the rural dwellers eagerly partake of the relief supplies while chanting Orange! Machungwa!, I am reminded of the equally macabre phenomenon right at the time of the American invasion of Iraq when famished Iraqi youth grabbed the supplies brought in from Kuwait- while denouncing the American imperialist and their Kuwaiti puppets.

Why can’t the NAK gang realize that Kenyans- especially the much maligned rural dwellers are among the most politically SOPHISTICATED Africans in the entire continent?

Surely they do not have to go much further back than the year 2002 when KANU tried to buy itself out of the disastrous Uhuru campaign.

CONTINUED...

[Onyango Oloo]

PART FIVE:

Dear readers our dear and beloved head of state has opened a veritable can of worms, a shocking Pandora’s Box.

Why do I say this?

Because at the heart of the Kenyan struggle is the question of land.

Do I repeat myself?

Do I repeat myself?

Do I repeat myself?

Of course I am repeating myself, deliberately, impishly, not just for the snazzy rhythmical effects of this compound sentence, but more to punch home a point over and over and over and over again:

When it comes to Kenyan politics, it is not, as the Gringos say, "It is the economy stupid!" rather, it is as Oloo says:

"It is the Mashamba, Wapumbavu!"

Which roughly translates as:

It is the Land Rights Question, Stupid.

Right now I am reading about three books simultaneously: Globalizing Resistance: The State of the Struggle edited by Francois Polet and CETRI(Pluto Press, 2004) Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America, edited by Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros (Zed Books, 2005) and another on globalization edited by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer. I would without hesitation, heartily recommend all three books.

Let me talk about the second one, you know the one titled Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Let me just confine myself with an excerpt of the conclusion to the first chapter, The Resurgence of Rural Movements Under Neo-Liberalism:

We have sought in this chapter to provide a holistic interpretation of the agrarian question in the international political economy, with special reference to the neoliberal period. We have argued that the agrarian question, despite its globalization, remains intimately tied up with the national question. We have also argued that the challenges to the resolution of the agrarian question, and the national question itself, have become ever greater under neoliberalism.

Nonetheless, neoliberalism is clearly on a weaker footing now than it was a quarter-century ago, having failed to deliver 'development' and ultimately suffered ideological defeat. The new historical conjuncture thus provides a rare opportunity for progressive movements to bring about a post-liberal order; it also presents the immense challenge of building a world order that sustains peripheral accumulation. It is perhaps ironic that rural movements have become the ‘natural’ leaders of progressive change, not by virtue of being exploited by capital, but by being expelled from it. But under the circumstances of severe political cooptation among the exploited and the crisis of social reproduction among the expelled, it is no surprise that rural movements are coming of age and taking up militant positions...( pp55-6)

Now I can bet six jirongos that none of the Maasai, Ogiek, Dawidas, Mijikendas or the Mau Mau aging ahois have sat down and read Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America from cover to cover. The book just came out and the reason I have it in my hands is because one of the contributing authors included in the volume gave me an advance copy in the course of another research project that I am involved in- but that is neither here, nor there.

So, one cannot blame the book and its authors for "inciting" these and other Kenyan communities for their agitation over land rights and agrarian reform. I certainly hope that the paranoid NAK folks do not go on a book burning spree with this volume at the top of the fiery pyre.

Unfortunately this book DOES NOT have any contributors from Kenya or Kenyans- and like I said, some of the work that I am seeing from Nairobi from journalists, civil society actors and lands rights advocates is definitely worth compiling into an anthology on land rights. Of course this may have already happened unbeknownst to me way over here in the Canadian wilderness.

I say unfortunate because I believe that a study into the political economy of the Mashamba Question in Kenya will yield the inevitable answer that the coming Kenyan National Democratic Revolution will NOT BE BASED on bananas and oranges, but on what those fruits sprout out of:

LAND.

Kenya is one country where our people have failed to reach a political orgasm despite decades of trying. That is just a cute way of saying that we as Kenyans have still to achieve national independence; we have yet to embark on true national emancipation, we have yet to launch our comprehensive social liberation project.

And why not?

Because we as Kenyans have not yet solved the Mashamba Question.

Over fifty years after they sacrificed life and limb for Uhuru na Mashamba, the Mau Mau Survivors hawana Mashamba wala hawaja onja Matunda ya Uhuru.

Over forty years after we pulled down the Union Jack, our so called independent government still takes orders from Whitehall, the White House, Bretton Woods, Brussels, Tokyo, and increasingly Beijing where a capitalist imperialist state like the United States and her G-8 siblings or cash awash social imperialists like the People's Republic of China are engaged in yet another gargantuan Big Power Scramble to Recolonize, Rebalkanize and Reconquer Africa- to which Kenya is still attached and embedded.

Ten years after we regained legal political pluralism, we do not see if those democratic gains have been translated into economic empowerment and social justice.

To regurgitate the cliché, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Listen to the voice of militant Kenyan youth reiterating this point in hip hop versifying:

216.17.145.92/uploads/2005/02/mabepari-sinpare-unknown_album__21-aug-03_19_24_01_.mp3


216.17.145.92/uploads/2005/05/02_roho_juu.mp3


216.17.145.92/uploads/2005/05/03_vijana_kwa_vijana.mp3

Kudos to the youthful, militant, progressive and patriotic comrades and compatriots in the Kimathi Movement, Sinpare and Do Klan Revolution for introducing me to the conscious tunes produced by the Kenyan underground hip hop community- you may never hear them on Kiss FM, but they are certainly making an impact in slums and shanty towns of Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Mombasa, Eldoret and elsewhere- the voice of Kenya's militant youth IS the Sound Track of the coming Mapinduzi in Kenya.

These young Kenyan voices strike a very discordant counterpoint to some of the grand standing of President Kibaki- and may I add, some of the leading Orange men and Orange women as well.

I mean, until the day Uhuru Kenyatta and Gideon Moi divest themselves of all those shadily acquired thousands of hectares, how could they ever be remotely CREDIBLE to the squatters and rural proletariat on the question of agrarian reform?

How can Mwai Kibaki convince ANYONE that he is serious when he rushes to Nakuru to give the Ogiek land they had rejected when in Murang'a, adjacent to his own home district of Nyeri an almost blind, landless and penniless cucu called Jemedari Wacera, inching towards her pauper's kaburi is pleading with Kibaki to please have some mashamba left over to give to her and the 115 members of her surviving Mau Mau veterans association?

How much land does Simeon Nyachae own in Nyanza, Central Province and the Rift Valley?

Is it true that the Odinga family together with the Ominos own practically half of Kisumu?

Is it true that the Mahmoud (as in Maalim and General Mohamoud) family are the REAL real estate barons of Garissa- or is it Wajir as well?

How much land does Eliud Mwamungais family own?

How about the ailing Darius Mbela?

Those mamwinyi in Mombasa- the Swahili, the Arab, the Mijikenda and the parvenu watu wa Bara waliokuja juzi- the Swaleh Ngurus, the Shariff Nassirs etc- when are they going to allow the urban residents of Sarigoi, Sparki, Majengo Sidiria, Kingorani, Mwandoni, Ngomeni, Kaloleni, Shika Adabu, Guraya,Kengeleni,Magongo, Changamwe, Mtongwe, Mji wa Kale, Mlango wa Papa, Inglandi, Mkanyageni, Kiziwi, Mkomani, Kisauni, Kwa Jomvu, Chaani, Kibarani, Mwembe Kuku, Bondeni, Mskiti Noor, Wayani, Ganjoni etc to own those rickety mabati roofed and makutithatched Swahili houses?

Why is it that in the year 2005 the Kiswahili speaking Gikuyu Muslim community in Nyeri town is still subsisting in squalid slums?

When will the dwellers of Pumwani, Kibera, Kangemi, Githurai, Zimmerman live in houses which have self-contained toilets that can flush at all times?

For how long will thirtysomething fathers and mothers have to wait for their parents to retire from their low paying municipal jobs before they can inherit those decrepit one bed roomed houses in Kaloleni, Jericho, Landi Mawe, Muthurwa, Makongeni, Huruma, Umoja, Buru Buru, Jerusalem, Ofafa Maringo, Ziwani and Bahati?

Who will do something proactive in Mtopanga and Eastliegh before the simmering resentment against Somali refugees (as opposed to indigenous Kenyans of Somali stock) breaks out into open physical conflict because the recent Somali arrivals are seen as selfish "foreigners" who are driving rental rates way out of reach of their poorer Kenyan urban neighbours?

CONTINUED...

[Onyango Oloo]

PART SIX:

The land question in Kenya is not only a rural question, but going by my questions above, very much an urban question as well.

Apart from these historical and class based questions, there is also the tension between human needs plus the exigencies of protecting Kenya's world famous flora and fauna.

Right now we see a standoff in the offing between the Maasai and the largely White Kenyan conservationist (and often quite conservative and occasionally borderline RACIST) elites over Kibaki’s reckless referendum linked give away of the Amboseli game reserve to the Ol Kajiado County Council.

Here is a recent news report followed by a self explanatory cartoon from the Standard:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1129576564

I predict that in the coming two years the land struggles of the Dawida, the Maasai, the Ogiek, the landless of Meru and the unresolved and complex tensions between the Kalenjins and the Agikuyu, not forgetting the Mijikenda and millions of urban, predominantly young slum dwellers will form the MAIN CONTENT of the national struggle for democracy in this country of ours.

The jogoos of the Swynnerton Plan and the cokerels of the Tiomin Dispossessions and the roosters of the Delamare land grabbings will crow as they come to home to roost.

These friendly fruit fights between members of comprador and petit bourgeoisie over who has the right to control the neo-colonial state will look, in retrospect, as distinctly tame and civil prep school debating society seminars.

The land based Kenyan Mapinduzi has been postponed for more than fifty years after Jomo Kenyatta and General China, and later on Tom Mboya, Daniel arap Moi and now Kibaki na Kiraitu sold out our people’s national aspirations.

Have you noticed that EACH OF THE THREE Presidents we have had in Kenya so far was welcomed enthusiastically and enjoyed soaring popularity and approval ratings?

Think of Kenyatta in 1963 and 1964.

Think of Moi in 1978 and 1979.

Think of Kibaki in 2002 and early 2003.

Kenyans gave every last one of them a chance to fix things, to start things over to deliver on a host of feasible and minimum democratic reforms.

With Kenyatta it was simple to bring to fruition the dream of the Mau Mau of Uhuru na Mashamba.

With Moi it was to be a clean break from the 15 year Kenyatta reign of terror and plunder.

With Kibaki it was even simpler- give us the democratic constitution we want and nothing more. You are a transitional president and there is nothing BELITTLING about that.

Nelson Mandela realized that he too, was a TRANSITIONAL leader and he rose to occasion and became the world's greatest, most respected and most admired statesman.

Kibaki recoiled from the prospect of relinquishing new found power.

How about if Kibaki had accepted his just historical role as a Moses who helps lead his people to the Promised Land- even if he does not cross the River Jordan?

He would have retired as one of the most loved Kenyan politicians because truth be said, prior to 2003, his careful fence-sitting had shielded him from any major scandal- just like Moi when he was Vice President.

Ironically, it would appear that it is DANIEL arap MOI in retirement, who is reinventing himself as an avuncular elder statesman standing above the factional fray while President Kibaki who was respected by many because of his keen intellect and perceived urban cosmopolitanism who is proving in his dotage to be insecure whenever he is torn apart from his andu aitu cocoon.

In any case, by rekindling the Land Debate Kibaki has made a major political miscalculation for very short term and elusive gains.

He cannot put the Mashamba genie back into the bottle.

His government which was RELUCTANT to release publicly the scathing Ndung'u Land Report must now deal with the fall out and consequences of going on a land giving spree.

If there was one thing that each Kenyan can do with right now- it is a piece of land.

Moving away from the intra-compradorial contestations for state power, I foresee an intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic vuta ni kuvute among the marginalized and landless.

The question:

Who does the land really belong to?

Is NOT a very simple and straightforward question.

For instance in Narok, Kajiado and parts of Laikipia, who does the land really belong to?

Does it belong to the fat cat telephone Indigenous Charcoal Black African Kenyan farmer who grabbed the thousands of hectares thanks to their access to neocolonial state patronage networks?

Is it the publicity shy Snowy White or is it Florid Pink Safari Cowboys like the Cholmondeleys whose claim are based on dubious colonial treaties?

Is it a subsidiary of a skanky agribusiness behemoth looking to make a quick windfall before moving to other Southern recolonized WTO friendly pastures?

Is it the burgundy/technicolour shuka clad


Maasai and


Samburu pastoralists who have been claiming this land for at least one hundred and fifty years?

Is it the animal skin attired Mau Forest dwelling

Ogiek with their


bows and arrows, cell-phones and laptops?

Is it the transplanted Gusii, Bukusu, Luo, Mhindi, Gikuyu and other Kenyan nationalities driven by their overpopulated and land starved "Native Reservations" to literally seek greener pastures and more sustainable livelihoods in other regions and districts where local resentment may tag them as "foreigners" marked for ethnic cleansing?

Is it the

elephants,

giraffes,

warthogs,

dik diks,

baobabs,

zebras

lions,

flamingoes,

butterflies and

worms of the world who should be left alone to rule the "natural world" ala the racist assumptions of right wing mainstream European descended conservationist Joy Adamson groupies who valorize the desire of

a zonked out gorilla to wallow in the freaking mist over the right of human beings to sustainable development?

Is it the neo colonial state which feels it has the carte blanche to grab rain forests and give it over to ignorant and rapacious private developers to clear cut?

These questions will be answered with rungus and simis, with bows and arrows, with guns and grenades.

That is if things continue along the path that they are going.

Dear readers:

The national constitutional conference provided Kenyans a rare historical window to have a national conversation not just about who can be an imperial president or an executive prime minister, but even more crucially, how different cultural and ethnic communities hope to solve the natural and land resource allocation problems in their specific local and regional contexts. To this end the CKRC collected literally thousands of submissions, position papers and presentations.

Some of the ideas from those submissions, position papers and presentations made their way into the Bomas Draft.

The NAK parvenu schemers and power hoarders, by reducing the upcoming referendum to a mischievous juxtaposition between Kibaki/Kikuyus and Raila/Luos stand off have demonstrated their Big Tribe contempt and arrogance for the smaller kabilas. From the Maasai and other marginalized, especially Waswahili and Mijikenda friends, comrades and colleagues that I have spoken with, most of them DO NOT GIVE A FLYING F*CK if Kenya has a Gikuyu President or a Luo Prime Minister. The Digos are wondering whether they will benefit from the super profits of titanium strip mining in Kwale; the Waswahili are wondering if they will ever get a cut from the lucrative tourism that comes with all those ships and planes; the Dawida people wanna know when they are taking over BOTH Tsavo National Parks; the Boranas and Gabras want to enter the 21st century. The Ogiek want to be recognized as a distinct people with a right to self-determination; the descendants of the Mau Mau want to see the prosperity, equality and dignity that Kimathi and General Muthoni dreamt about; the grandchildren of Muindi Mbingu want to reclaim their regions from the encroaching desert; the Luos want an end to the crippling underdevelopment in Siaya, Migori, Homa Bay and Kisumu; the Kisii wonder about more business incentives to further spur their entrepreneurial spirit; the Somalis want to be treated as First Class Citizens, just like other Kenyans; the Kalenjins are tired of being stereotyped as killers and land grabbers who all benefited from Goldenberg and Moi’s misrule; the Abaluhya and all the other communities I have not mentioned share most if not all of these concerns with their fellow Kenyans.

Distinct from those ethnic groups, we see that Kenyan women want to live in a non-sexist, non-misogynist and non-patriarchal, democratic and progressive Kenya with all that it implies economically, culturally, socially and politically; the youth of Kenya want good jobs, quality education, adequate housing and they would certainly not say no to a little political power; the working people of Kenya want an end to exploitation, retrenchment and a halt to the disastrous neo-liberal "developmentalist" social experiments that have reduced them to guinea pigs used as pawns between the IMF and the local neocolonial lackeys of international finance capital; the farmers, the small farmers the backbone of our agriculture based economy finally want to be PAID adequately for their labour and produce; the intelligentsia, especially its tertiary domestic stratum do not want to be lumpenized or forced to flee the country if they want to meet their car loan payment...Add to the list.

The monstrosity of the betrayal of both the Unbwogable Spirit and the National Democratic Consensus at Bomas around the demand for a New Katiba is that the various fractions of the competing factions within the neo-colonial compradorial nyapara strata, have by their tribal based uchoyo na ubinafsi all but guaranteed that Kenya is finally going to realize a SOCIALIST oriented National Democratic Revolution WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS wapende wasipende, as some people like to say.

That is of course MHARO INDUCING to the Tumbo Kubwas of Nairobi, but can only be a comforting and energizing thought to a Marxist-Leninist like Onyango Oloo and his Kenyan anti-imperialist comrades and compatriots.


I am DONE with this INSHA.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto.

[Onyango Oloo]

Topic subject RE: Land revolution
Topic URL www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=72069&mesg_id=72074
72074, RE: Land revolution
Posted by Okwang, Fri Oct-21-05 07:51 PM

Very informative piece OO! Lakini I think you are looking at the land issue from its adolescent stage rather than from its conception. By this I mean that the inequality of land distribution did not start with the Moi regime nor the Kenyatta era. I put it to you that Baba (na mama) wa taifa found the land issue already in play. Unfortunately I do not have your research techniques nor the time, but I have a close friend in Meru whose family owns over 25000 acres of coffee and tea combined. Now here is a farmer who never cut down his coffee bushes in protest over coffee prices along with the other small scale farmers. Instead he would pick up the phone, call state house, speak to the old man (currently in retirement) and days later, have his coffee escorted by armed guards to the port of Mombasa ready for shipment. How did he get all this land you ask? He was a lowly D.O. (or its equivalent) during the last leg of the colonial powers.

Of course certain individuals have benefitted enomously since 1963.

However, I would like to prescribe a different antidote for the land issue. First I disagree that in 5 to 10 years there will be a revolution in Kenya based on the need to own land. The communities you mentioned are mainly pastoral. They have strong ties to cattle. However you don't need to go to school to know that land is a limited resource. At some point these communities will have to adapt their lifestyles to suit the times. And as I have mentioned once or twice before, the times are dictated by the amount of dollars, pounds, gold, oil,purchasing power that you have in the global market. Cattle no longer count. So the idea of these communities organizing and running (or sharing in the running and revenue of)these game reserves makes perfect sense. Secondly how many people really want large tracks of land? I don't. Give me somewhere big enough to bury me and my wife and am straight. Thirdly, how is the government going to give everyone land? The Maasai for example have been know to bring the cattle up to Race Coarse in Ng'ong claiming that it is part of their grazing land.

I think that we should all be looking for other sources of revenue. And this is where I disagree completely with the socialist idea. At least in the traditional sense as we know it. Some adapted form of socialism may be acceptable but not full fledged socialism. Especially since Kenya still lacks a lot of infrastructure and social amenities. But ultimately I think that capitalism will be the norm.

Now back to Kibaki and the land hand outs - WELCOME TO POLITICS. His speech was simply beautiful. Even you OO are not too proud to appreciate that! But he is not the first one, nor will he be the last one to stoop to this level. Politics is all about capitalising on oppotunities. Chivalry, moral high ground, blah, blah, is simply the pastry that blankets the pig before you feed it to the Muslim.
Cheers


Mtaalamu Jr Fri Oct-21-05 08:41 PM
Member since Mar 25th 2003
191 posts

#72075, "FYI - Okwang"
In response to Reply # 1


The Dawida, Mijikenda are not pastoral communities...

Okwang Fri Oct-21-05 08:48 PM
Member since Sep 24th 2001
125 posts

#72076, "RE: FYI - Okwang"
In response to Reply # 2

True. However, they all face the same dilemna as the larger pastoral communities. My main point was that we have to look at alternative sources of revenue. There isn't enough land for everyone, and am sure the Mijikenda don't want to relocate to Rongai to settle on some of the Kenyatta land. Or do they? One solution is to have property taxes that can then filter into the surrounding environs to help build social amenities and infrastructure. What do you think?

Cheers

[Onyango Oloo]

NEWS

Kimunya joins JM Land Row

Story by MOSES MWATHI and MURIITHI MURIUKI, Daily Nation Publication Date: 10/24/2005

Thousands of squatters living on former Nyandarua North MP JM Kariuki's land have been given a reprieve by the Government.

They will continue occupying the 800-acre farm in Ol Kalou until the Government finds alternative land to settle them, although a court order has been issued for their eviction.

Lands minister Amos Kimunya said at the weekend that the 3,000 squatters should stay put until they are resettled.

The minister, who was addressing a Yes campaign rally at the Ol Kalou stadium, which is next to the farm, told them to ignore the High Court's eviction order.

"The Government will not execute the court ruling," he said. "You'd better start cultivating the farm," he said amid cheers from the crowd.

But the late MP's family accused Mr Kimunya of "playing politics with a very sensitive issue" without consulting them.

Said JM's daughter, Mrs Rosemary Mashua, on their behalf: "I'm very disappointed that politicians can use the property of a dead person to try and convince poor Kenyans to vote for the proposed Constitution... This is not the way to go about it." She told the Nation by phone that the minister was ignoring a court order to gain political mileage.

Neither the current Constitution nor the proposed one, Mrs Mashua said, allows ministers to disobey the law.

For more than two decades, the family has been embroiled in a court battle with the squatters who claim the land was given to them by the politician.

Recently, the High Court ruled in the family's favour and issued an eviction order, which the Government is yet to execute. Tension has been high in the area since the ruling, with the squatters vowing to disobey the court.

But yesterday, Mr Kimunya said the Government had considered the squatters’ plight and decided that they stay on.

The squatters include the Ndorua Kanini Kega women's group, which used to entertain JM when he was the area MP.

Mr Kimunya promised that the Government would soon find a lasting solution to the dispute.

Contacted after the rally, Mr Kimunya could not say if the decision had been made in consultation with the JM family. But he pointed out that the move was not a "political hoax" or meant to curry favour with the squatters.

Mr Kimunya's action comes a week after President Kibaki defied a court and issued 12,000 title deeds to the Ogiek community in Nakuru District.

The action drew widespread condemnation with church leaders and the Law Society of Kenya accusing the President of setting a bad precedent by disregarding the court.

It also comes a few weeks after the minister rescinded an earlier order he had issued against subdivision of agricultural land below 2.5 acres. Making the announcement, the minister said the order had been politicised by the Orange group campaigning against the proposed Constitution.

Earlier, the Government had also announced the resettlement of 10,000 families evicted from Mau forest.

Although the Government has denied it, all these are being seen as moves by the Government to win votes in the November 21 referendum.

Yesterday, Ndaragwa MP Muchiri Gachara praised the Government move on the Ol Kalou squatters, saying that they had suffered long enough.

"It's unfortunate that the squatters did not cultivate their portions this year for fear of eviction," he said during a Yes campaign at Mairo-Inya trading centre in his constituency. "They are wallowing in hunger.

But Mrs Mashua said the JM family would not give up the land, and asked Mr Kimunya to obey the court order.

The row started immediately the MP died in 1975. While the squatters claim he gave them the land for their service to him, his three widows say there is no written statement to that effect.

They want the squatters to move out to allow the family to develop the land.