Coast Title Deeds & Berth 19

[dineo]

It has been a wonderful day today in Mombasa as squatters lined up for title deeds, some of which had been collecting dust in the Ministry of Lands registry since 1964!

Everywhere - at least with all the family members, neighbors and friends I've been on the phone with - people are all smiles.

Personally, I'm so glad that this moment of sunshine has fallen on poor Coastal people who for so long have languished in poverty on plots of land they could not use to better themselves financially. I'm also elated at the commissioning of Berth 19 at Mombasa Port. My youngest brother is a crane operator there and I could "see" his grin through the phone and hear the pride in his voice when he spoke about a certain crane operator who was mentioned by the President for breaking a work record the other day. Lisilo budi hutendwa!

Today, the President was in Kilifi and Khadija Primary School near my old house. I spoke with my old neighbour who was going to witness the issuance of deeds even though he himself was not going to be receiving one. Kesho jumamosi rais aelekea Lamu na Tana, jumatatu Kwale na Taita Taveta.

Earlier on before the exercise began, the usual suspects akina Joho, Abdulswamad, Rashid Bedzimba, Omar Hassan etcetera were calling on Coast residents to reject the titles. The usual Coast politicians na upuzi vibarazani. When they realised that everybody was pro issuance of title deeds - from Miji Kenda elders all the way across the board - and after a morning visit to State House Mombasa, they changed their tunes. A minute ago they were telling us the title deeds were fake, eti tutapokonywa mashamba and that only outsiders (meaning Kikuyus of course) would get the titles but now they are singing a different song. My goodness! Kweli pwani kuna vituko vya vipekee.

Those CORD politicians should concentrate on delivering their manifesto promises (as Jubilee is doing in Coast) na iwe funzo kwake Joho na waongo wengine kama yeye that times have changed. They can no longer hold poor Coastal folk hostage with their "land issue" lies. James Orengo (CORD) was Minister of Lands from 2008. What was he doing sitting on old title deeds? Why didn't he push for their issuance? And yet in the run-up to the election, Agwambo and his crew were blaring their thinly-veiled hate speech against "outsiders" who were refusing to deal with Coastal land matters. Kweli ya Mungu ni mengi. I hope they have learned their lesson. Joho, Abdulswamad etc should concentrate very hard on delivering on their manifesto promises na waache siasa zisizo na mkia wala kichwa otherwise it will be hard for them to stand next time around. But all in all, at least they saw the light and said they are backing Uhuruto on development issues henceforth. That's all we want.

A great day for the poor, marginalised Coastal people.

[b6k]

Aug 30, 2013 21:49:05 GMT 3 dineo said:

James Orengo (CORD) was Minister of Lands from 2008. What was he doing sitting on old title deeds? Why didn't he push for their issuance? And yet in the run-up to the election, Agwambo and his crew were blaring their thinly-veiled hate speech against "outsiders" who were refusing to deal with Coastal land matters. Kweli ya Mungu ni mengi. I hope they have learned their lesson. Joho, Abdulswamad etc should concentrate very hard on delivering on their manifesto promises na waache siasa zisizo na mkia wala kichwa otherwise it will be hard for them to stand next time around. But all in all, at least they saw the light and said they are backing Uhuruto on development issues henceforth. That's all we want.

Interesting breaking news update from "the ground", Dineo. I suppose Orengo & co were busy issuing fake titles at Syokimau & the likes during his tenure as minister of lands

[mank]

Dineo,

Is that a veiled shout out to Ouru and his vice?

[jakaswanga]

Aug 31, 2013 8:50:11 GMT 3 mank said:

Dineo,

Is that a veiled shout out to Ouru and his vice?

Mank,

There could be a devil in the details, or, as they say, a green snake under the luscious grass of these title deeds. That is then reason for caution, as is always necessary when dealing with politicians out to win public support by populist measures apparent. But in my opinion, whatever the details, THE ISSUANCE OF TITLE DEEDS WHICH HAVE BEEN LYING IN OFFICE SINCE 1964 is a revolutionary act, by our Kenyan standards. That it has taken the greatest, most high-profile beneficiary of land-grabbing, and the inheritor to the Kenyatta estate to make this step in office, is an added historical irony the stuff of a God's slap to would-be progressives; but I think we should give the devil his dues.

I concur and would echo Dineo's orgasmic shout of delight, thereafter to ask where the son of Jomo has been all those years he has been powerful in politics; and, in addition, ask if more such [Kenyan standards] radical measures are coming soon, since that ICC thing will be very distracting I can assure him. There is tremendous premium on his Excellency's time.

Mank, as you know, getting title-deeds has been a nightmare for ordinary citizens; and many have got it only to realise they have a fake, that their land was already sold many times using the original title deed. This means Mr. Kenyatta, as president, OWES THE NATION an explanation from his own mouth, why the government hoarded/confiscated these all important documents for 50 years. Does he leave that evident rot intact? [Imagine the opportunity cost, given what the enterprising ones could have done, in possession of their title deeds. May be the could have negotiated loans, been prudent and taken off, economic wise: --Do you think they should sue, given our new constitution is a litigant's paradise? (think how quickly Shollei got her 'rights' back! Only one day's mention in court!)]

ACHTUNG! HERR. B6K

JAMES ORENGO, EX LAND'S MINISTER.

In one single crack move, PR-gimmick or not, Uhuruto has achieved an extraordinary thing in the realM of politics. They have destroyed, even if post-humously once over, James Orengo who is one of Raila's key lieutenants. Orengo can not get out of this one. This is a vicious sword to the hilt ---he should now restrict himself to rigging elections in Siaya, or, in any case, paying Luo ex CIDs to dig dirt from Oduol's bedroom escapades! [--Not much he can do for Kethi Kilonzo, is there?]

Orengo needs to come up with an excuse for his impotence as Land's minister. A torn rag just to try to cover his shattered dignity. This area voted massively for CORD, unlike the RV which already had seen through Orengo's duplicity in matters land. But now www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/We+are+with+Jubilee+Coast+leaders+declare/-/1064/1974326/-/ulit0gz/-/index.html

The region voted overwhelmingly for the rival Coalition for Reform and Democracy (Cord) and its presidential candidate Raila Odinga during the March 4 election, but the leaders said they were ready to close ranks for the sake of development.

Addressing a public rally at Khadija Primary School in Nyali constituency, where the titles were given, the leaders led by governors Amason Kingi (Kilifi) and Hassan Joho (Mombasa) said the issuance of the deeds was “a 50-year dream that has finally come true”.

Likoni MP Masoud Mwahima was forthright: “We abused you so much during the campaigns Mr President, but today we are singing a different song,” he started.

“Our problem in coast region for all those decades has been land ownership. Today, the Jubilee government has brought title deeds to us; and you are telling us not to work with Jubilee? We must be crazy then.”

Mr Kingi said he was ready to pay the price for working with the government since it was “now clear that the government was ready to sort out the critical land issue.”
“In matters of development, I will be close to your government irrespective of party affiliation. If I will be called names for this, let it be,” the Kilifi governor said.
His Mombasa counterpart welcomed the move, saying the gesture demonstrated the government’s commitment to addressing landlessness.

“In Mombasa, we are people who mean what we say; when we say we are going west, we go west,” he said, alluding to their decision to work closely with Jubilee.

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar said the leadership at the Coast was ready and willing to co-operate with the government to address problems facing their people.

“We will pursue the agenda of land redistribution, and now that the government is addressing it, we will work with President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto,” he stated.

Yes, referendum blues in the backdrop of ICC blues. Uhuruto has to do things madongo! Have to play big politics!

But ...

ACTUALLY: There should be a national land reform. To lay the legal framework for a scientific regime of Agriculture throughout the country, as in intensive capitalist production.

Land redistribution could still mean people having land titles yes, but they are locked in small scale, haphazard weather-dependent peasant production mode, feudal and primitive, and economically speaking, a famine's paradise.

This is the trap land redistribution in Zimbabue fell into: yes land was redistributed, but productivity and production collapsed, because the re-distribution did not maintain nor institute a new framework of organisation to continue producing full scale!

THE FEUDAL HELL HOLE AND FIX.

NB: some of these peasants getting title deeds will soon sell them to marry third wives . Or mortage them for small loans on which they will default, leaving their offspring as landless as ever. -----[A STUDY FROM AN AREA IN INDIA WHERE PEASANTS HAVE BEEN COMMITING SUICIDE EN MASSE, IN ADDITION TO THE RE-EMERGENCE OF [CASTE] BONDING OF CHILDREN TO A LANDLORD IS ILLUMINATING. Some smatter peasants will consolidate their plots into large holdings where fleecers in management, like Kazungu Kambi of old if you remember his case, will use them to get loans, commandeer the loans, declare themselves bankrupt, and let the banks confiscate the holding for default, leaving the peasants landless again ----[this is how the other swindling racket has been operating]. THE VICIOUS CYCLE.

To get out of this vicious cycle ---Note Kazungu Kambi regardless of his land-swindling history is in Uhuruto's cabinet--- it is obvious the present elite will not do. That is their ideological blindspot. So they wont see the accident coming. They must cause it.

THE GIRIAMA RANCH CASE STUDY AS EQUIVOCAL

mavulture.com/kazungu-kambi-go-getter-reported-swindled-fame-power/

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Development+Bank+sues+minister+over+Sh390m+loan/-/539550/1737504/-/ebqf4k/-/index.html

The loan was advanced to Riva Oil in two instalments of Sh60 million and Sh190 million. The company offered parcel of land in Kilifi as security for the loan and Mr Kambi, Mr Karisa and Mr Tuitoek topped up with personal guarantees for the debt.

Now the ranch is set to be auctioned as members cannot pay the billions of shillings demanded by the bank. Already, the three-month grace period extended by the bank to clear the debt has elapsed

Keep your mind open, Dear Dineo, now for the next round!

[dineo]

Jakaswanga,

Well I certainly don't think there was anything "orgasmic" about my delight at the issuance of title deeds in my place of birth, or for that matter in my happiness at hearing my younger brother's, extended family's, friends' and neighbours' new-found confidence. There was nothing sexual about my heartfelt joy. The bulk of my work in Mombasa and its environs in the past has been grassroots Civic Education and for me, a Vitengeni native immersed in the goings on of my mtaa, to hear the joy in my people's voices was glee inducing. Just with this issuance of title deeds - and the commissioning of the port - there appears to be a paradigm shift in my people. Already, I am hearing people demanding that Joho and other CORD leaders should "produce results and stop lying to us"; this coming from the very same people who five months ago, would become mute or highly aggressive when I questioned their seemingly maniacal support of these leaders.

You say:

"Land redistribution could still mean people having land titles yes, but they are locked in small scale, haphazard weather-dependent peasant production mode, feudal and primitive, and economically speaking, a famine's paradise."

This is very odd coming from a Kenyan who I am assuming, is aware that the majority of peasants in our homeland who till the soil do so in a manner that cannot "economically speaking", be equated with - in any way -a scenario that will eventuate a "famine's paradise" in our homeland. I have on many occasions in the past, visited friends in Coast, Central, Rift Valley, Eastern and Western parts of Kenya and been amazed at what can be produced sustainably, on small scale farms, by peasants. I recall visiting Kebirigo in Kisii land some years ago and marveling at what my friend's mother was able to produce on a one acre plot. She had honey bees, mushrooms, kunde, terere, watermelons, two cows (zero grazing) and a thriving vegetable garden. And chickens and God knows what else as well... To extrapolate and insinuate that the issuance of deeds in the Coast Province will somehow lead to "famine", is at best, very odd, to say the least.


You also say that:

"This is the trap land redistribution in Zimbabue fell into: yes land was redistributed, but productivity and production collapsed, because the re-distribution did not maintain nor institute a new framework of organisation to continue producing full scale!"

Where is your proof? Please provide us independently verifiable links. FYI, in another thread, I supplied links that proved without a shadow of a doubt, that land redistribution in Zimbabwe has been a resounding success for previously landless peasants and that tobacco production is back to 1990's levels. This by the way, has been achieved by previously landless Zimbabwean peasants and not by modern, professional white people farming in a non-feudal, non-primitive manner.

Additionally, the Coast squatters have not been without access to land per se, and have been involved in small-scale sustainable farming practices all along. It is just that they weren't in possession of title deeds and I see no reason why the issuance of a piece of paper will turn them crazy and make them forget how to farm in a sustainable manner something they have been doing for generations, which is why you haven't heard of any "famines" at the Coast.


You then say that: "some of these peasants getting title deeds will soon sell them to marry third wives. Or mortage them for small loans on which they will default, leaving their offspring as landless as ever", and you then go on to append some study from India that is meant to lend credibility to this highly strange piece of reasoning. Well..., that is neither here nor there. I am assuming you have a magic wand and are able to predict (in your mind) what those ignorant Coastal peasants will do (selling titles to marry third wives etc), but since I don't believe in magic, I'll just call your reasoning odd, or at the least, negative wishful thinking. And for what reason you would say that, I don't know.

I also don't get your reasoning when you append Kazungu Kambi's case to this. That is like saying Luos are incapable of handling money since they were duped into 'investing' in the infamous molasses plant saga by Raila Odinga. Isolated cases should be seen as that. 

Jakaswanga,

I think you should just be a good citizen and wish your fellow wananchi well in this time of great happiness for them. We deserve it. We've had enough negativity. It's time for more and more positivity.


Mank,

Yes, I congratulate Uhuru and his team for this, profusely. I supported him in his election campaign - unlike the rest of the bulk of my Coastal people - because I believed in him. I believed he would solve this problem and he has began to.

[jakaswanga]

Aug 31, 2013 18:29:30 GMT 3 dineo said:

Jakaswanga,

Well I certainly don't think there was anything "orgasmic" about my delight at the issuance of title deeds in my place of birth, or for that matter in my happiness at hearing my younger brother's, extended family's, friends' and neighbours' new-found confidence. There was nothing sexual about my heartfelt joy. The bulk of my work in Mombasa and its environs in the past has been grassroots Civic Education and for me, a Vitengeni native immersed in the goings on of my mtaa, to hear the joy in my people's voices was glee inducing. Just with this issuance of title deeds - and the commissioning of the port - there appears to be a paradigm shift in my people. Already, I am hearing people demanding that Joho and other CORD leaders should "produce results and stop lying to us"; this coming from the very same people who five months ago, would become mute or highly aggressive when I questioned their seemingly maniacal support of these leaders.

You say:

"Land redistribution could still mean people having land titles yes, but they are locked in small scale, haphazard weather-dependent peasant production mode, feudal and primitive, and economically speaking, a famine's paradise."

This is very odd coming from a Kenyan who I am assuming, is aware that the majority of peasants in our homeland who till the soil do so in a manner that cannot "economically speaking", be equated with - in any way -a scenario that will eventuate a "famine's paradise" in our homeland. I have on many occasions in the past, visited friends in Coast, Central, Rift Valley, Eastern and Western parts of Kenya and been amazed at what can be produced sustainably, on small scale farms, by peasants. I recall visiting Kebirigo in Kisii land some years ago and marveling at what my friend's mother was able to produce on a one acre plot. She had honey bees, mushrooms, kunde, terere, watermelons, two cows (zero grazing) and a thriving vegetable garden. And chickens and God knows what else as well... To extrapolate and insinuate that the issuance of deeds in the Coast Province will somehow lead to "famine", is at best, very odd, to say the least.


You also say that:

"This is the trap land redistribution in Zimbabue fell into: yes land was redistributed, but productivity and production collapsed, because the re-distribution did not maintain nor institute a new framework of organisation to continue producing full scale!"

Where is your proof? Please provide us independently verifiable links. FYI, in another thread, I supplied links that proved without a shadow of a doubt, that land redistribution in Zimbabwe has been a resounding success for previously landless peasants and that tobacco production is back to 1990's levels. This by the way, has been achieved by previously landless Zimbabwean peasants and not by modern, professional white people farming in a non-feudal, non-primitive manner.

Additionally, the Coast squatters have not been without access to land per se, and have been involved in small-scale sustainable farming practices all along. It is just that they weren't in possession of title deeds and I see no reason why the issuance of a piece of paper will turn them crazy and make them forget how to farm in a sustainable manner something they have been doing for generations, which is why you haven't heard of any "famines" at the Coast.


You then say that: "some of these peasants getting title deeds will soon sell them to marry third wives. Or mortage them for small loans on which they will default, leaving their offspring as landless as ever", and you then go on to append some study from India that is meant to lend credibility to this highly strange piece of reasoning. Well..., that is neither here nor there. I am assuming you have a magic wand and are able to predict (in your mind) what those ignorant Coastal peasants will do (selling titles to marry third wives etc), but since I don't believe in magic, I'll just call your reasoning odd, or at the least, negative wishful thinking. And for what reason you would say that, I don't know.

I also don't get your reasoning when you append Kazungu Kambi's case to this. That is like saying Luos are incapable of handling money since they were duped into 'investing' in the infamous molasses plant saga by Raila Odinga. Isolated cases should be seen as that. 

Jakaswanga,

I think you should just be a good citizen and wish your fellow wananchi well in this time of great happiness for them. We deserve it. We've had enough negativity. It's time for more and more positivity.

Mank,

Yes, I congratulate Uhuru and his team for this, profusely. I supported him in his election campaign - unlike the rest of the bulk of my Coastal people - because I believed in him. I believed he would solve this problem and he has began to.

Dineo,
Ownership and productivity are two different things. That is the logic behind the LAND REFORM. Capitalism or Socialism. A king could own land, estates of it, fertile provinces of it, but, as private property, while people are starving, choose to use it for his golfing leisure, or hunting and other recreational affairs of the royalty and the nobility. The reform was: land to those who will farm it. Title deeds to farmers working and living it.

But there came a type of farmer who only grew crops for his immediate subsistence, and nothing for the market. Yet the population, for various reasons, trebled and set to rise even more astronomically. Now the second reform came for food security: Farming will be scientific and produce surplus. And yes, this surplus had, in the beginning, a defined quota. Fail and loose the title deed to a better farmer.

This is the ruthlessness of modern land reform which I accept. The relentless productive drive for the marginal extra unit squeezable out of an input factor. In 50 years, the population of Kenya will hit minimally, if I remember the projection correctly, 80 million. Now, when you want to feed 80 millions, and feed them middle-class style in line with say Vision 2030, you are going to revolutionise agricultural production or starve. Even if you have all the oil to export and import foodstuffs.

NB: The middle calss for instance need more water to wash their car than to bathe per week, more water to fill the swimming pool than to Throw away 20% of the food they buy --passed consume by date: the environmental tax or footprint is huge, and frankly, I believe no classic small-scale peasant is going to have the freedom to produce as he wishes. The dictate of the middle class, on whose behalf the state shall be operating, will wipe the peasants out, if not gently, then by genocide.

You will already notice, to service the middle class consumption patterns of the world, African states have turned their armies into genocide perpetrators, eradicating peasants from their land to give room for food growing companies. Tana river in Kenya, is no exception to this phenomenon.

Take all these facts and developments in mind, when you celebrate your title deeds! I warn gently. The dynamics of agriculture in Africa in the next half a century wont be gentle.

========================
The book Zimbabwe takes back its land, as far as I understand it, has become the de facto authority of the success of Mugabe's land reform. Discussed here.

www.amazon.com/Zimbabwe-Takes-Back-Its-Land/dp/1565495209
www.aljazeera.com/programmes/south2north/2013/06/2013621124213836626.html

But this story of success does not hide HUNGER, and hunger is the clearest indication of an agricultural crisis in a land endowed with Land and waters and peoples. [Africa is not yet into producing food in deserts. Can be done, but not yet by us].
www.wfp.org/countries/zimbabwe/food-security

www.fao.org/english/newsroom/global/gw0104-e.htm

The large-scale commercial sector saw a decline of about 30 percent in area planted under all crops. This decrease was primarily due to problems stemming from the country's land-acquisition activities. Maize was particularly affected, with a decline of 54 percent in area planted. Another reason for the drop in maize

THE SCEPTICS
www.american.com/archive/2013/july/the-truth-about-mugabes-land-reform

allafrica.com/stories/201307311138.html

www.thezimbabwean.co/business/agriculture/62494/maize-production-in-southern-africa.html

Without strong adaptation measures, climate change will reduce food crop yields by 16% worldwide and by 28% in Africa over the next 50 years. It is unlikely that the price and yield volatility will continue to rise as extreme weather continues, with further negative effects on livelihoods and placing food security at risk.

Strong adaptation measures to me, is a total overhaul of how it has done upto now.

Dineo: I am sorry if I sounded negative. The thing is, I can not help enjoying today with my eyes firmly fixed on tomorrow. Today the title deed, tomorrow the loan, then what on default?

[OtishOtish]

Uhuru should be given some credit for actually showing that he is trying to do something about land problems. (We can later discuss his own land ownership***) I share in the joy of the Coast people.

What I don't get is the "since 1964". And all it takes is for one guy to go over there and say, "hand them over!". Did the people ever go and ask if their titles deeds were ready? What were all those government people and their bosses doing all those years? This surely deserves an "incompetence" (or other appropriate) entry in the Guinness Book of Records.


***Ruto, who recently had to return a nice chunk of stolen land, is quoted as saying that ".. it was unacceptable that less than 100 wealthy people shared out 1 million acres of land while ordinary citizens, who are the majority, only owned less than two acres each."

[jakaswanga]

Aug 31, 2013 18:29:30 GMT 3 dineo said:

Jakaswanga,

Additionally, the Coast squatters have not been without access to land per se, and have been involved in small-scale sustainable farming practices all along. It is just that they weren't in possession of title deeds and I see no reason why the issuance of a piece of paper will turn them crazy and make them forget how to farm in a sustainable manner something they have been doing for generations, which is why you haven't heard of any "famines" at the Coast.


You then say that: "some of these peasants getting title deeds will soon sell them to marry third wives. Or mortage them for small loans on which they will default, leaving their offspring as landless as ever", and you then go on to append some study from India that is meant to lend credibility to this highly strange piece of reasoning. Well..., that is neither here nor there. I am assuming you have a magic wand and are able to predict (in your mind) what those ignorant Coastal peasants will do (selling titles to marry third wives etc), but since I don't believe in magic, I'll just call your reasoning odd, or at the least, negative wishful thinking. And for what reason you would say that, I don't know.

Dineo,

Let us take a closer look at my bouts of wishful thinking.

I want to dispel for you the oddity that, like a cyst, blunts your full access unto my thinking.

1. You will read and notice I said [some of] THESE PEASANTS. Now, as a sociological, political economic, or merely a cultural unit of stratified society, THE PEASANTRY IS NO MYSTERY. Her origins as --let us use the classical word-- class, her economic options in pre- industrial and post industrial society is a done deal. Her political and financial fortunes in a political dynamic dominated by the antagonism between labour and capital is inconsequential, even when, as in Africa, they form the majority of the population.

The truth is, the peasantry must evolve into something higher, more radical, more world wise, or become marginalised and extinct.

I therefore handle the Land problem in Kenya from a materialist import, and use a characterisation of Peasantry as a class:
TAKE A LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS ---Marx and Engels on Peasants:

www.marxmail.org/archives/May99/peasants.htm

The irony is this: the French Revolution in essence freed the peasants from peonage, and thereafter a burgeoning economy and growing urban population led to an essentially continuous increase in demand for agricultural products, notably food and wine. Thus the French peasantry was indeed petty bourgeois. The small peasants doubtless had been frozen out and sold their land to the bigger peasants who now were indeed small business men. ---Jim Blaut

1. Where did the small peasants who, having been liberated by the French revolution only to be subsequently frozen out go? --Could it be, that what is being described here is their bankruptcy and eventual destitution? And has this dynamic been repeated elsewhere allover the world where, initially in similar fashion, the Uhuru Kenyattas of the world made peasant DREAMS come true, only for a section of them to end up worse? FROZEN OUT!

This has got nothing to do with ignorant coastals or ignorant Nyanzans: a peasantry as a class in an emerging financial economy is at the bottom of the pile. Ugrade, or be vermin. By the time the country is industrialised, all that shall remain of the peasantry will be the agricultural farmers, probably less than 5% of the population. They wont even be respresented in parliament, nor will a political party be based on their support.

Marx also pointed out that a good portion of France's peasantry was in the process of being squeezed out of their farms. Like American small farmers they were forced to borrow money in order to keep their operations going but they were often subject to usurious interest rates. French agriculture experienced a kind of boom-bust cycle, and every time there was a bust more and more peasants would lose their lands. It is true that the French Revolution had liberated the peasants and gave them their own land. However, by the 1840s many of them were in danger of losing it, while a smaller number of well to do peasants were prospering and buying up the lands of their more unfortunate brethren. The bankers who lent them money and the merchants who sold them supplies and who marketed their produce of course prospered. However, despite the fact that much of the French peasantry was being driven under, this did not lead them into becoming revolutionaries for the reasons that Marx outlined in *The 18th Brumaire*. Instead, they tended to place their hopes in the proverbial "man on a white horse," a Louis Napoleon for instance who promised to bail them out.
Marx towards the end of his life came to perceive that conditions were not necessarily the same for peasants in other countries particularly Russia. Whereas, the French peasantry had developed a strong individualist tradition which discouraged collective action, the Russian peasants retained a strong communal tradition that centered around the ancient mir. For this and other reasons, Marx expressed a cautious optimism concerning the revolutionary potential of the Russian peasantry. And as it turned out what was true for the Russian peasantry was even more true for the peasants of China, Vietnam, and other Asian countries.
Jim Farmelant

Dineo --THINKING OF usurious interest rates squeezing out small-scale American farmers.

have you checked the interest rates of banking loans in Kenya of late? And have you checked the profit returns of banks in Kenya of late? what do you notice?

Now, those peasants, coastal or not with title deeds. Will they need some 'loans' to operate? Or will they be 'banking sector' free? [that is totally primitive, independent of credit]. Or will they, at least, attempt to accumulate, generate surplus, for which CREDIT is the God?

You get my odd thinking?

Now, you move into a loan, interest rates 20%, and you are farming depending on the elements of nature, you are staring a 'repossession' prospect in the eye. ---The crisis of peasantry in accumulation. No illusions here.

I hope we now see eye to eye. scientifically.

NB: The title-deeds have 'come free'. That is, between 1964 and 2012, they were held as collaterals having been used by others to, yes, earn credit fraudulently. Or is it that you actually think they were just lying there in the vaults, idle in use, waiting for the good Samaritan president?

FOLLOW THE MONEY MONEY MONEY, FOLLOW THE MONEY.

Yes, the Luo peasants were swindled in the Mollases saga. The Luo business class did not invest nor buy shares in it, because the IOU document, when they saw it, they understood it DID NOT GIVE THEM GROUNDED CLAIM. You know the kind of guys [classes] who read and understand employment contracts to the fine legal details, would know a scam when they came across one! Not so? ---Even for pyramid schemes, there is a threshold level of naivete required to be a victim.

I also don't get your reasoning when you append Kazungu Kambi's case to this. That is like saying Luos are incapable of handling money since they were duped into 'investing' in the infamous molasses plant saga by Raila Odinga. Isolated cases should be seen as that.

The Kazungu Kambi case is illustrative of a kind of loan scam which has been perpetrated on land holdings by their boards all over the republic.

When we discuss parasatals collapsing all over, we will use CChris Kirubi [Uchumi supermarkets and KENATCO fiascos] as the illustrative case of these national graft sport, which we call primitive accumulation.

2: That study from India is not in support of strange reasoning: it is a documentation of the bankruptcy and financial ruin of this specific economic class, specific in India, but generalisable to all peasant modes of production in crisis, in 18th century Europe, or 20th century USA, or 21st century India or Afrika. Or 17th century Russia.

This is a case of baada ya furaha, dhiki! for the majority.

How do I know they will marry third wives: do you remember KFA. Kenya Farmers Association. It went bust because the loans out to peasants allover the country could not be recovered [neither could the land be confiscated --interesting reasons why]. They were several researches, at leat one by the World Bank:

WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE MONEY, question number 4. ----Paid school fees, paid debts, paid dowry! An amazing insight, and not just in Kenya alone! Nor just Afrika. Marriage proved to be a key 'INVESTMENT EXPENDITURE'!

[dineo]

Jakaswanga,

Thank you for being more positive but I am not a fatalist like you.

If anything, given its penchant for blindly emulating all things Western, the Kenyan middle class will more than likely grow fat, there will be heightened instances of hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes and cancer in their midst (as is already the case in Nairobi) and they will end up dying of those diseases or of consuming the Kentucky Fried Chicken, Nandos and highly fattening croissants they seem to have fallen in love with. Either that or they will be hobbling around on walkers and electric wheelchairs since they will be too obese to stay on their feet. And also, because military personnel are generally sourced from the peasant class, I highly doubt that any Government will set the military on its own. If anything, they'll go after the rich and middle class. I have no doubt that the population growth rate might pose a problem down the line, but that would be if we were operating only under the assumption that Mother Nature is incapable of culling the herd herself. And as we all know (or should), Mother Nature has proven that she can manage that quite well. We are not apart from her. We are a part of her.

I will read the links your provided at length and comment later if I find I should. And again, thank you for the rise in positivity in you last post.


OtishOtish,

Thank you for wishing us well. We have to be happy for each other when good things happen to us as children of the same homeland.


b6k,

You said:

"Interesting breaking news update from "the ground", Dineo. I suppose Orengo & co were busy issuing fake titles at Syokimau & the likes during his tenure as minister of lands."

Well I don't know about Syokimau or fake titles there, but the breaking news updates I have been receiving from friends and family in Mombasa have been heartwarming, wonderful and hilarious. Yesterday, we were all laughing about a generally unreported (at least in the media) incident that was witnessed by numerous folks at the Khadija grounds that is being ruminated upon in wapwani circles.

Not many people outside Mombasa know of the intense hatred between Sonko and Joho. Oddly enough, though he is Jubilee, Sonko is very much loved by many people in the Coast (he grew up there). Joho on the other hand, has proved to be an incompetent bully since his rise to power. His 'boys' (goons) go around the city harassing wananchi, pushing people off pavements etc, he has already been implicated in a scandal regarding the mysterious financial donations he received that helped purchase the new Mombasa police cars (undeclared donations, contrary to Article 76 (1) of the Constitution), he is yet to submit a revised budget to Budget Controller Agnes Odhiambo (the first submission had a huge deficit) which means that Mombasa is in danger of losing out on county funds allocated by the Commission for Revenue Allocation, and of course, his fake degree saga. Basically, he went in there thinking he and his goons were the new sheriffs in town, which automatically brought back memories of the manner in which Shariff Nassir and his horrible sons treated Coast residents in the past.

Anyway, when Rais had finished his final speech at Khadija Primary and was walking away to his car after the issuance of title deeds, Sonko who was behind Rais, alimzaba Joho kibao, in full view of the President's entourage and all wananchi gathered. After the slap, Joho akamlipa na ngumi mgongoni which is when their respective crew members rushed in and stopped the incident from escalating into a fight. This incident is now the talk of the town.

Uhondo wa mtaa

[mank]

Aug 31, 2013 9:59:01 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

Aug 31, 2013 8:50:11 GMT 3 mank said:

Dineo,

Is that a veiled shout out to Ouru and his vice?

Mank,

There could be a devil in the details, or, as they say, a green snake under the luscious grass of these title deeds. That is then reason for caution, as is always necessary when dealing with politicians out to win public support by populist measures apparent. But in my opinion, whatever the details, THE ISSUANCE OF TITLE DEEDS WHICH HAVE BEEN LYING IN OFFICE SINCE 1964 is a revolutionary act, by our Kenyan standards. That it has taken the greatest, most high-profile beneficiary of land-grabbing, and the inheritor to the Kenyatta estate to make this step in office, is an added historical irony the stuff of a God's slap to would-be progressives; but I think we should give the devil his dues.

I concur and would echo Dineo's orgasmic shout of delight, thereafter to ask where the son of Jomo has been all those years he has been powerful in politics; and, in addition, ask if more such [Kenyan standards] radical measures are coming soon, since that ICC thing will be very distracting I can assure him. There is tremendous premium on his Excellency's time.

Mank, as you know, getting title-deeds has been a nightmare for ordinary citizens; and many have got it only to realise they have a fake, that their land was already sold many times using the original title deed. This means Mr. Kenyatta, as president, OWES THE NATION an explanation from his own mouth, why the government hoarded/confiscated these all important documents for 50 years. Does he leave that evident rot intact? [Imagine the opportunity cost, given what the enterprising ones could have done, in possession of their title deeds. May be the could have negotiated loans, been prudent and taken off, economic wise: --Do you think they should sue, given our new constitution is a litigant's paradise? (think how quickly Shollei got her 'rights' back! Only one day's mention in court!)]

ACHTUNG! HERR. B6K

JAMES ORENGO, EX LAND'S MINISTER.

In one single crack move, PR-gimmick or not, Uhuruto has achieved an extraordinary thing in the realM of politics. They have destroyed, even if post-humously once over, James Orengo who is one of Raila's key lieutenants. Orengo can not get out of this one. This is a vicious sword to the hilt ---he should now restrict himself to rigging elections in Siaya, or, in any case, paying Luo ex CIDs to dig dirt from Oduol's bedroom escapades! [--Not much he can do for Kethi Kilonzo, is there?]

Orengo needs to come up with an excuse for his impotence as Land's minister. A torn rag just to try to cover his shattered dignity. This area voted massively for CORD, unlike the RV which already had seen through Orengo's duplicity in matters land. But now www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/We+are+with+Jubilee+Coast+leaders+declare/-/1064/1974326/-/ulit0gz/-/index.html

The region voted overwhelmingly for the rival Coalition for Reform and Democracy (Cord) and its presidential candidate Raila Odinga during the March 4 election, but the leaders said they were ready to close ranks for the sake of development.

Addressing a public rally at Khadija Primary School in Nyali constituency, where the titles were given, the leaders led by governors Amason Kingi (Kilifi) and Hassan Joho (Mombasa) said the issuance of the deeds was “a 50-year dream that has finally come true”.

Likoni MP Masoud Mwahima was forthright: “We abused you so much during the campaigns Mr President, but today we are singing a different song,” he started.

“Our problem in coast region for all those decades has been land ownership. Today, the Jubilee government has brought title deeds to us; and you are telling us not to work with Jubilee? We must be crazy then.”

Mr Kingi said he was ready to pay the price for working with the government since it was “now clear that the government was ready to sort out the critical land issue.”
“In matters of development, I will be close to your government irrespective of party affiliation. If I will be called names for this, let it be,” the Kilifi governor said.
His Mombasa counterpart welcomed the move, saying the gesture demonstrated the government’s commitment to addressing landlessness.

“In Mombasa, we are people who mean what we say; when we say we are going west, we go west,” he said, alluding to their decision to work closely with Jubilee.

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar said the leadership at the Coast was ready and willing to co-operate with the government to address problems facing their people.

“We will pursue the agenda of land redistribution, and now that the government is addressing it, we will work with President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto,” he stated.

Yes, referendum blues in the backdrop of ICC blues. Uhuruto has to do things madongo! Have to play big politics!

But ...

ACTUALLY: There should be a national land reform. To lay the legal framework for a scientific regime of Agriculture throughout the country, as in intensive capitalist production.

Land redistribution could still mean people having land titles yes, but they are locked in small scale, haphazard weather-dependent peasant production mode, feudal and primitive, and economically speaking, a famine's paradise.

This is the trap land redistribution in Zimbabue fell into: yes land was redistributed, but productivity and production collapsed, because the re-distribution did not maintain nor institute a new framework of organisation to continue producing full scale!

THE FEUDAL HELL HOLE AND FIX.

NB: some of these peasants getting title deeds will soon sell them to marry third wives . Or mortage them for small loans on which they will default, leaving their offspring as landless as ever. -----[A STUDY FROM AN AREA IN INDIA WHERE PEASANTS HAVE BEEN COMMITING SUICIDE EN MASSE, IN ADDITION TO THE RE-EMERGENCE OF [CASTE] BONDING OF CHILDREN TO A LANDLORD IS ILLUMINATING. Some smatter peasants will consolidate their plots into large holdings where fleecers in management, like Kazungu Kambi of old if you remember his case, will use them to get loans, commandeer the loans, declare themselves bankrupt, and let the banks confiscate the holding for default, leaving the peasants landless again ----[this is how the other swindling racket has been operating]. THE VICIOUS CYCLE.

To get out of this vicious cycle ---Note Kazungu Kambi regardless of his land-swindling history is in Uhuruto's cabinet--- it is obvious the present elite will not do. That is their ideological blindspot. So they wont see the accident coming. They must cause it.

THE GIRIAMA RANCH CASE STUDY AS EQUIVOCAL

mavulture.com/kazungu-kambi-go-getter-reported-swindled-fame-power/

www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Development+Bank+sues+minister+over+Sh390m+loan/-/539550/1737504/-/ebqf4k/-/index.html

The loan was advanced to Riva Oil in two instalments of Sh60 million and Sh190 million. The company offered parcel of land in Kilifi as security for the loan and Mr Kambi, Mr Karisa and Mr Tuitoek topped up with personal guarantees for the debt.

Now the ranch is set to be auctioned as members cannot pay the billions of shillings demanded by the bank. Already, the three-month grace period extended by the bank to clear the debt has elapsed

Keep your mind open, Dear Dineo, now for the next round!

Man Jakaswanga and Dineo,

When Uhuru campaigned with promises to solve land issues I thought he was playing careless politics. I wondered how he would dream of solving Kenya's land issues. I still don't expect him to solve them, but what he and his team seem to have done in Mombasa must count. He must have known something the rest of us did not know. Now if he could go a little easy on Wanjiku's account at breakfast, lunch and dinner ...

Aug 31, 2013 21:12:22 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Uhuru should be given some credit for actually showing that he is trying to do something about land problems. (We can later discuss his own land ownership***) I share in the joy of the Coast people.

What I don't get is the "since 1964". And all it takes is for one guy to go over there and say, "hand them over!". ....

Precisely my sentiments!

As for Ruto complaining complaining that so many live on 2 acres while others have thousands or millions, that's really not the issue ... you keep what you earn .... if it is a million acres, so be it. But when you take 1 acre that you did not earn, then its a problem.

On that note, man Jakaswanga and Njakip, could you find some time and unleash those talents to dig out anything that can be found on Kenyatta's land deals? I was reading something the other day, and in it I found that Jomo Kenyatta had started buying land well before independence. What I read is definitely not trickster on this subject ... its a narrative written about Kenya's events leading to uhuru. Certainly anyone who had an eye on buying land then could have amassed much, especially if he also became lucky enough to earn overseas. Kitu kidogo hapa na pale, I doubt not - even if you are not looking for it, you have to try hard as a public figure not to be bribed in Kenya! It is only fair, therefore, that whenever we claim that for him to have so much he must have looted, we show evidence of shady deals. Possession alone ain't enough.

[Daktari wa makazi]

It is the case, that most arable and valuable land in the Coast has been grabbed, and the locals who lived and owned those pieces of land are dumped in ‘settlement land’, land set aside to accommodate those whose piece of lands have been taken away and now left as ‘squatters’. The coast has the highest numbers of squatters in the country. About 80 per cent of the native Coast residents are landless fifty years after Kenya became independent.


When I heard those squatters are now being given title deeds, I appreciated that the one or two hectares allocated to a family here or there will be legalized, giving them some stable ownership. They will own the land, and never again will suddenly someone appear bearing title deeds, and apply to the court for an eviction. That was a relief.

But, I also know that the title deeds were simply a scheme to pacify people from seeking the larger portion of their valuable land – which Jomo Kenyatta, Simeon Nyachae, Jackstone Angaine, Danial arap Moi, Mwai KIbaki, Stanley Matiba, Charles Rubia, and the many others ‘grabbers’ are illegally enjoying land in the Coast Strip. They parcelled out valuable plots of land, on the coast, as a means of securing political influence, or simply enriching themselves.

My reason is twofold.

One, Uhuru did not involve the National Land Commission that is charged with looking at the land historical injustices and addressing them in his exercise of dishing out title deeds. That meant people who claimed their land was misappropriated and had their claim before the National Land Commission were not given their original land back, but was ‘compensated’ with a smaller parcel somewhere, usually in the places where they squatted. In essence, their claims will then be classified as ‘solved’, and Uhuru and his friends holding on to the large tracts they grabbed will be cemented, having silence the rightful owners.

Second, the constitution is clear the President cannot issue title deeds on lands he does not own. He was at liberty to issue title from his land, the 4000 Hectares he promised to distribute to the locals from his family’s land in the Coast. Whatever happened there - I hope he has not renegaded on his promise.

[jakaswanga]

Sept 1, 2013 5:10:13 GMT 3 mank said:

Man Jakaswanga and Dineo,

When Uhuru campaigned with promises to solve land issues I thought he was playing careless politics. I wondered how he would dream of solving Kenya's land issues. I still don't expect him to solve them, but what he and his team seem to have done in Mombasa must count. He must have known something the rest of us did not know. Now if he could go a little easy on Wanjiku's account at breakfast, lunch and dinner ...

Keep your eyes and ears open Amigo! It is something you definitely know, you will soon surprise yourself!

Sept 1, 2013 5:10:13 GMT 3 mank said:

Aug 31, 2013 21:12:22 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Uhuru should be given some credit for actually showing that he is trying to do something about land problems. (We can later discuss his own land ownership***) I share in the joy of the Coast people.

What I don't get is the "since 1964". And all it takes is for one guy to go over there and say, "hand them over!". ....

Precisely my sentiments!

As for Ruto complaining complaining that so many live on 2 acres while others have thousands or millions, that's really not the issue ... you keep what you earn .... if it is a million acres, so be it. But when you take 1 acre that you did not earn, then its a problem.

On that note, man Jakaswanga and Njakip, could you find some time and unleash those talents to dig out anything that can be found on Kenyatta's land deals? I was reading something the other day, and in it I found that Jomo Kenyatta had started buying land well before independence. What I read is definitely not trickster on this subject ... its a narrative written about Kenya's events leading to uhuru. Certainly anyone who had an eye on buying land then could have amassed much, especially if he also became lucky enough to earn overseas. Kitu kidogo hapa na pale, I doubt not - even if you are not looking for it, you have to try hard as a public figure not to be bribed in Kenya! It is only fair, therefore, that whenever we claim that for him to have so much he must have looted, we show evidence of shady deals. Possession alone ain't enough.

Amigo, your grandfather was a Mau-Mau General. THE WHITEMAN had documents proving possession of all his/your fertile Lands as the Queens gift, aka the whiteman's higlands, into the OWNERSHIP of him, the White Settler. I agree: That the Throne of England possessed MK as the Whiteman's Highlands and King's dominions, does not prove England stole the land. Your granddad disagrees with us and went to war to reclaim what was his by other laws. But we will see for the Maasai, it was different: Laibon Lenana signed an eternal binding agreement.

Mank, here is some compelling reading. EN-JO-YIE

wikileaks-press.org:81/file/kenya-who-owns-the-land.pdf

Coast Province was not spared. Kenyatta family owns almost 15% the prime resort land in the province --[-? hectares], besides a huge sisal plantation spanning both Taita and Taveta districts, safely watched by his son-in-law and former MP Marsden Madoka, and another close friend to Uhuru Kenyatta, and current Minister in Kibaki’s Coalition Government, Naomi Shaban.

You could say, Kenyatta II, now rich and no longer needing LAND as an economic asset to his personal fortune, is shedding of ballast! He is moving on as they say!

But he has got good PR-men. They show him the trick: Thy son of Jomo can make these people kneel down for you as the God who made their dreams come true! while all you are doing, your excellency, is giving them back what your family stole from them, and which you no longer need.

We are adults here Mank, and I repeat: The peasantry is a historically moribund class. It is historical litter, and ever since capitalist industrialisation in a commodity economy, her fortunes are are a dead end. Uhuru, or just about anybody with a Machiavellian bend, can use them and dump them at will. Luo, Coastal, MK, or RV, the disorganised peasantry shall bow before her tormentors!



But, if they are forged behind a world view no less ruthless and imperial with its own mature consciousness of liberation, the peasantry are a terror and a system changing base. This was the genius of Mao Tze Dong, and much more Ho Chin Minh of Vietnam who organised the peasantry to defeat a super power.

Luo, Coastal, MK, or RV, the disorganised peasantry shall bow before her tormentors!

Look at this Mank:

The 1904 and 1911 Anglo-Maasai land “Agreements” details the unjust grabbing of Maasai lands in Laikipia, Naivasha, Ngong, Karen, and tracts along the Uganda Railway line whereby uneducated Maasai Laibons either
friendly to, or fearful of the British (christened Paramount Chiefs) like Lenana, Ole Mbatian, were cajoled and intimidated into giving away native fertileMaasai land to the colonialists.
The words in the “Agreements” read like ……”we the undersigned, being the Laibons of clans of Maasai, have of our own free will, decided that it is for OUR best interests to REMOVE OUR PEOPLE, FLOCKS, AND HERDS into definite reservations away from the Railway line and away from European settlements…..” and “…..In conclusion, we wish to state that we are quite
satisfied with the foregoing arrangement, and we bind ourselves and our successors, as well as OUR PEOPLE, to observe them as long as the Maasai as a race shall exist..”

Are you aware of Maasai songs which denounce Laibon Lenana for his awesomely kind heart ? So Amos Kimunya could get away with this

100 years later, when asked to address this burning Maasai land issue, former Lands Minister appointed by Mwai Kibaki, Mr. Amos Kimunya (now Finance Minister), once told the Maasai that there was nothing to address
since the wise Maasai forefathers had given away their land to the British in a BINDING AGREEMENT which continues to apply to date. Well, similar horrid but true stories applied in Kalenjin lands of Rift Valley and at the Coast too.

---That is how you treat the peasantry, until some Political capitalist like William Ruto emerges and organises a redress of the 'historical injustice', by way of ethnic cleansing!

Below here, just for academic and comical purposes, I will post excerpts from this study of LAND GRABBING IN KENYA. From White settlers to Black Landlords!

[jakaswanga]

PURELY ACADEMIC NOW:

wikileaks-press.org:81/file/kenya-who-owns-the-land.pdf

PART 3: The Grabbers of the Rift Valley

Most of the power brokers in the Kenyatta regime who formed land-buying companies established huge farms in the Rift Valley either jointly or on theirown. They included Njenga Karume, the then Chairman of Gema Holdings, who acquired 20,000 acres in Molo where he is growing tea, coffee, pyrethrum and potatoes and 16,000 acres in Naivasha. GG Kariuki acquired his 5,000 acres at Rumuruti, Laikipia Division, while former Attoney-General Charles Njonjo bought into the 100,000 acre Solio Ranch. Don’t forget, grabbing of settler land in Central by many colonial collaborators, at the expense of the Mau Mau fighters, was part of the scheme. Senior Chief Munyinge from Muiga took 400 acres. Initially, senior chief Munyinge was allocated only 70 acres but with time he managed to acquire 330 more acres. Mwai Kibaki acquired 20,000 acres in Nanyuki. Former MP the late Munene Kairu has 32,000 acres at Rumuruti. Mr Isaiah Mathenge, the former powerful Provincial Commissioner under Kenyatta and an MP under Moi, is arguably the largest land owner in Nyeri municipality. He owns Seremwai Estate, which is 10,000 acres. Kibaki’s friend, Kim Ngatende, a former government engineer, has 500 acres too. Mathenge also owns—jointly with former Provincial Commissioner Lukas Daudi Galgalo—the 10,000-acre Manyagalo Ranch in Meru.

More academics about OWNERSHIP, which of course proves not foul play!

PART 4: Kenyatta’s Land holdings

Kenya’s two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country. 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. (This report first appeared in the Standard Newspaper report by Mr. Otsieno Namwaya).

The Kibaki and Moi families also own large tracts, most held in the names of sons and daughters and other close family members, all concentrated within the 17.2 % of Kenya that is arable or valued. Remember that 80 per cent of all
land in Kenya is mostly arid and semi arid land. According to the Kenya Land Alliance, more than a 65% of all arable land in Kenya is in the hands of only 20 per cent of the 35 million Kenyans. That has left millions absolutely landless while another 67 per cent on average own less than an acre per person.

I know a problem when I see one. What was that again Ruto said about landlessness and huge landlordism?

LAND REFORM I REPEAT. Somewhere in the future: either the easy way, organised and peaceful, or the hard way, with screams blood and fire and smoke. Check your history books for details. ---Purely academic of course.

[OtishOtish]

Sept 1, 2013 5:10:13 GMT 3 mank said:

On that note, man Jakaswanga and Njakip, could you find some time and unleash those talents to dig out anything that can be found on Kenyatta's land deals? I was reading something the other day, and in it I found that Jomo Kenyatta had started buying land well before independence. What I read is definitely not trickster on this subject ... its a narrative written about Kenya's events leading to uhuru. Certainly anyone who had an eye on buying land then could have amassed much, especially if he also became lucky enough to earn overseas. Kitu kidogo hapa na pale, I doubt not - even if you are not looking for it, you have to try hard as a public figure not to be bribed in Kenya! It is only fair, therefore, that whenever we claim that for him to have so much he must have looted, we show evidence of shady deals. Possession alone ain't enough.

Mank:

I'd be interested to read of those early acquisitions. I am especially intrigued by the idea that he was "lucky enough to earn overseas". It is true that he lived overseas for something like more than a decade. But what exactly did he do that would have led to the "earning"? I know he played a part, as an "extra", in some minor movie, but ...

But to be "only fair": As far as I know, Jomo acquired his land in "perfectly legal" ways. He did so in two ways:

GoK had (and may still have) the authority to dish out land to deserving citizens, and His Excellency had executive authority. The first and most deserving citizen he could find was .... a certain Mr. Jomo Kenyatta! I once watched a TV comedy in which a petty criminal was representing himself in court and also appearing in the dock. He would alternate between sitting at the "counsel's table" and addressing the empty "dock chair": "Now, Mr. Bong, did you do a, b, and c at such and such a place on ... ?". He would then rush into the "dock chair" and answer: "No, counselor; I most definitely did not did not ...". And so on.

I can imagine His Excellency sitting at his desk in State House and looking at the empty chair across:

"Mr. Kamau ... er, sorry ... Mr. Kenyatta, can you assure me that you are genuinely landless and intend to put this land to good use?".

He then walks to the other side:

"Yes, Mtukufu Rais; the granting of this land would indeed be a great blessing."

Walks around to the other side and:

"By my authority, as President of The Great Republic of Kenya, I hereby sign ..."

Scuttles to the other side, as Citizen Kenyatta:

"Mtukufu Rais! I can tell you that I am the happiest man today! Thank you, thank you!".

The other way was through the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme that the Brits set up to supply money that was to be used to buy out departing white farmers, with the land subsequently to be sold back to deserving Kenyans. The land was bought back and then sold to deserving Kenyans at give-away prices. And guess who was the most deserving of the deserving Kenyans!

Odinga and the like howled. His Excellency dealt sharply with the nyoko-nyoko.

On the other hand, if he did what his own brother claims he did, then he definitely broke the law:

www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Uhuru+removed+from+land+grab+suit/-/1064/1957030/-/uyif4o/-/index.html

[mank]

Sept 1, 2013 15:23:52 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

Sept 1, 2013 5:10:13 GMT 3 mank said:

Man Jakaswanga and Dineo,

When Uhuru campaigned with promises to solve land issues I thought he was playing careless politics. I wondered how he would dream of solving Kenya's land issues. I still don't expect him to solve them, but what he and his team seem to have done in Mombasa must count. He must have known something the rest of us did not know. Now if he could go a little easy on Wanjiku's account at breakfast, lunch and dinner ...

Keep your eyes and ears open Amigo! It is something you definitely know, you will soon surprise yourself!

Sept 1, 2013 5:10:13 GMT 3 mank said:

Precisely my sentiments!

As for Ruto complaining complaining that so many live on 2 acres while others have thousands or millions, that's really not the issue ... you keep what you earn .... if it is a million acres, so be it. But when you take 1 acre that you did not earn, then its a problem.

On that note, man Jakaswanga and Njakip, could you find some time and unleash those talents to dig out anything that can be found on Kenyatta's land deals? I was reading something the other day, and in it I found that Jomo Kenyatta had started buying land well before independence. What I read is definitely not trickster on this subject ... its a narrative written about Kenya's events leading to uhuru. Certainly anyone who had an eye on buying land then could have amassed much, especially if he also became lucky enough to earn overseas. Kitu kidogo hapa na pale, I doubt not - even if you are not looking for it, you have to try hard as a public figure not to be bribed in Kenya! It is only fair, therefore, that whenever we claim that for him to have so much he must have looted, we show evidence of shady deals. Possession alone ain't enough.

Amigo, your grandfather was a Mau-Mau General. THE WHITEMAN had documents proving possession of all his/your fertile Lands as the Queens gift, aka the whiteman's higlands, into the OWNERSHIP of him, the White Settler. I agree: That the Throne of England possessed MK as the Whiteman's Highlands and King's dominions, does not prove England stole the land. Your granddad disagrees with us and went to war to reclaim what was his by other laws. But we will see for the Maasai, it was different: Laibon Lenana signed an eternal binding agreement.

Mank, here is some compelling reading. EN-JO-YIE

wikileaks-press.org:81/file/kenya-who-owns-the-land.pdf

Coast Province was not spared. Kenyatta family owns almost 15% the prime resort land in the province --[-? hectares], besides a huge sisal plantation spanning both Taita and Taveta districts, safely watched by his son-in-law and former MP Marsden Madoka, and another close friend to Uhuru Kenyatta, and current Minister in Kibaki’s Coalition Government, Naomi Shaban.

You could say, Kenyatta II, now rich and no longer needing LAND as an economic asset to his personal fortune, is shedding of ballast! He is moving on as they say!

But he has got good PR-men. They show him the trick: Thy son of Jomo can make these people kneel down for you as the God who made their dreams come true! while all you are doing, your excellency, is giving them back what your family stole from them, and which you no longer need.

We are adults here Mank, and I repeat: The peasantry is a historically moribund class. It is historical litter, and ever since capitalist industrialisation in a commodity economy, her fortunes are are a dead end. Uhuru, or just about anybody with a Machiavellian bend, can use them and dump them at will. Luo, Coastal, MK, or RV, the disorganised peasantry shall bow before her tormentors!



But, if they are forged behind a world view no less ruthless and imperial with its own mature consciousness of liberation, the peasantry are a terror and a system changing base. This was the genius of Mao Tze Dong, and much more Ho Chin Minh of Vietnam who organised the peasantry to defeat a super power.

Luo, Coastal, MK, or RV, the disorganised peasantry shall bow before her tormentors!

Look at this Mank:

The 1904 and 1911 Anglo-Maasai land “Agreements” details the unjust grabbing of Maasai lands in Laikipia, Naivasha, Ngong, Karen, and tracts along the Uganda Railway line whereby uneducated Maasai Laibons either
friendly to, or fearful of the British (christened Paramount Chiefs) like Lenana, Ole Mbatian, were cajoled and intimidated into giving away native fertileMaasai land to the colonialists.
The words in the “Agreements” read like ……”we the undersigned, being the Laibons of clans of Maasai, have of our own free will, decided that it is for OUR best interests to REMOVE OUR PEOPLE, FLOCKS, AND HERDS into definite reservations away from the Railway line and away from European settlements…..” and “…..In conclusion, we wish to state that we are quite
satisfied with the foregoing arrangement, and we bind ourselves and our successors, as well as OUR PEOPLE, to observe them as long as the Maasai as a race shall exist..”

Are you aware of Maasai songs which denounce Laibon Lenana for his awesomely kind heart ? So Amos Kimunya could get away with this

100 years later, when asked to address this burning Maasai land issue, former Lands Minister appointed by Mwai Kibaki, Mr. Amos Kimunya (now Finance Minister), once told the Maasai that there was nothing to address
since the wise Maasai forefathers had given away their land to the British in a BINDING AGREEMENT which continues to apply to date. Well, similar horrid but true stories applied in Kalenjin lands of Rift Valley and at the Coast too.

---That is how you treat the peasantry, until some Political capitalist like William Ruto emerges and organises a redress of the 'historical injustice', by way of ethnic cleansing!

Below here, just for academic and comical purposes, I will post excerpts from this study of LAND GRABBING IN KENYA. From White settlers to Black Landlords!

Thanks amigo. That wikileaks article was the kind of thing I was looking for. It seems the files of the STFS would need to be opened if we are serious about solving land issues. But we would be fooling ourselves to expect Uhuru to preside over such an undertaking.

[mank]

Sept 1, 2013 16:47:30 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Sept 1, 2013 5:10:13 GMT 3 mank said:

On that note, man Jakaswanga and Njakip, could you find some time and unleash those talents to dig out anything that can be found on Kenyatta's land deals? I was reading something the other day, and in it I found that Jomo Kenyatta had started buying land well before independence. What I read is definitely not trickster on this subject ... its a narrative written about Kenya's events leading to uhuru. Certainly anyone who had an eye on buying land then could have amassed much, especially if he also became lucky enough to earn overseas. Kitu kidogo hapa na pale, I doubt not - even if you are not looking for it, you have to try hard as a public figure not to be bribed in Kenya! It is only fair, therefore, that whenever we claim that for him to have so much he must have looted, we show evidence of shady deals. Possession alone ain't enough.

Mank:

I'd be interested to read of those early acquisitions. I am especially intrigued by the idea that he was "lucky enough to earn overseas". It is true that he lived overseas for something like more than a decade. But what exactly did he do that would have led to the "earning"? I know he played a part, as an "extra", in some minor movie, but ...

But to be "only fair": As far as I know, Jomo acquired his land in "perfectly legal" ways. ...

The good thing with "perfectly legal" land acquisitions is that they leave records. I think the only reason that we have not had a serious inquiry is that among those with a platform there is no one clean enough to cast the first stone.

[danielwaweru]

Hi Jakaswanga and mank

The Wikileaks posting is simply a rehash of claims made in the aftermath of the 2007 election by Job Obonyo. (The original posting is archived here.) Its evidential value is nil.

[danielwaweru]

Sept 2, 2013 0:22:34 GMT 3 mank said:

Sept 1, 2013 16:47:30 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Mank:

I'd be interested to read of those early acquisitions. I am especially intrigued by the idea that he was "lucky enough to earn overseas". It is true that he lived overseas for something like more than a decade. But what exactly did he do that would have led to the "earning"? I know he played a part, as an "extra", in some minor movie, but ...

But to be "only fair": As far as I know, Jomo acquired his land in "perfectly legal" ways. ...

The good thing with "perfectly legal" land acquisitions is that they leave records. I think the only reason that we have not had a serious inquiry is that among those with a platform there is no one clean enough to cast the first stone.

The Ndung'u report Annex (I would have to look up the page numbers) has evidence IIRC of two pieces of land irregularly acquired by Mzee or his family. He begun to acquire land well before independence --- as Lonsdale mentions somewhere, at or about the date of Mzee's marriage to a daughter of Koinange, he acquired land (presumably through his father-in-law, who was still a very substantial land-holder in his own right).

[OtishOtish]

Mank:

Unless there has been some cleansing, the lands records should still exist. But, as I noted above, they will show nothing illegal: Mzee was given land by GoK, or purchased it from the same. On the other hand, if you are of an historical mind, you want to look at why very early on several trouble-makers, who obviously did not understand the law, were howling about Mzee's "land grabbing".

I also note comments by Daniel Waweru, to the effect that he was properly acquiring land way back when. What exactly that has to do with Mzee's post-1963 acquisitions is unclear to me.

Serious inquiry? Mzee, in several speeches to the Kenyan public, made it clear that he would not tolerate what he called nyoko-nyoko or mchezo. That's what he would think of your idea of a serious inquiry. Again, if you are of an historical mind, you should be able to easily find his ideas of solutions, all of which were put into effect immediately and decisively.

[danielwaweru]

Sept 2, 2013 3:51:26 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Mank:

Unless there has been some cleansing, the lands records should still exist. But, as I noted above, they will show nothing illegal: Mzee was given land by GoK, or purchased it from the same. On the other hand, if you are of an historical mind, you want to look at why very early on several trouble-makers, who obviously did not understand the law, were howling about Mzee's "land grabbing".

I also note comments by Daniel Waweru, to the effect that he was properly acquiring land way back when. What exactly that has to do with Mzee's post-1963 acquisitions is unclear to me.

Serious inquiry? Mzee, in several speeches to the Kenyan public, made it clear that he would not tolerate what he called nyoko-nyoko or mchezo. That's what he would think of your idea of a serious inquiry. Again, if you are of an historical mind, you should be able to easily find his ideas of solutions, all of which were put into effect immediately and decisively.

(1) One way you can tell the records still exist is via Paul Ndung'us finding that at least two of Mzee's properties were irregularly acquired.

(2) The relevance of Mzee's prior acquisitions arises as follows.

It is part of the ODM (and allied) narrative that Kenyatta must have stolen the land he possessed because it is impossible for anyone to acquire that amount of land legally in the c 15 years he was president. As Mank pointed out earlier, this presupposes that Kenyatta acquired all his land holdings while he was president. That presupposition is false: Kenyatta acquired land well before he was president. And one generally shouldn't believe statements with false presuppositions.

(3) Your claim that no serious inquiry into land distribution in the Kenyatta era was possible is nonsense, I'm afraid. I'll mention just two of many examples. The World Bank collected and maintained extensive data on the distribution of land in the 60s and 70s (which included information such as the ethnic background of those who settled) some of which can be found in Widner:

Disaggregated data on migration patterns, which would give some sense of the magnitude of the influx into the Rift, are unfortunately difficult to obtain. A World Bank study based on 1962 and 1969 census data found that nearly half of all out-migrants from Central Province and Western Province settled in the Rift Valley during Kenya's first years of independence.[16] These estimates suggest settlement of about 166,300 former residents of the Kikuyu districts and 100,450 residents of Western Province in the Rift during the seven-year intercensal period.[17] The shortage of acreage for increasing numbers of landless people and the agribusiness interests of Kenyan entrepreneurs also generated concern that foreigners had succeeded in obtaining acreage at the expense of Kenyans. In 1967, the government had disclosed that nearly a million acres of land had been bought by foreigners during the first four years of independence,[18] despite a ban on such transfers.

You might also be interested in Segal (1967), who found that the main beneficiaries of land re-allocation in the Kenyatta era, taking into account population sizes, were the Kisii and Kalenjin.

[jakaswanga]

Marx also pointed out that a good portion of France's peasantry was in the process of being squeezed out of their farms. Like American small farmers they were forced to borrow money in order to keep their operations going but they were often subject to usurious interest rates. French agriculture experienced a kind of boom-bust cycle, and every time there was a bust more and more peasants would lose their lands
Read more: jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8656/coast-title-deeds-berth-19#ixzz2dlHo9etQ

Uhondo wa mtaa

[/quote]

A PERSPECTIVE.

First: www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092432&story_title=uhuru-orders-probe-into-coast-land-grab

With title deeds, Mr Kenyatta said, land owners would be in a position to borrow money to build permanent homes and develop their properties.

He asked the beneficiaries to utilise the title deeds by either acquiring loans to build commercial structures, tilling their land, farming or starting businesses by using the land papers as collateral.
“The land for the 60,000 title deeds we have given you is worth more than Sh20 billion in value. You need to take the titles seriously, let’s use this value to benefit us,” he urged.

These title deeds have been gathering dust somewhere in governmet cellars for half a century. Halleluya the soon of Jomo discovered yesterday what a magic wand they can be if these peasants rubbed! ---That is the BOOM side. How about the BUST?

Mr. Kenyatta and cohorts is a major player in banking sector, the agricultural sector, and the building sector, the insurance sector.... Indeed, His portfolio as Kenya's richest man, would indicate an ENGULFING monopolist. Then HE tops it up all with state power! ---There is a classical name in political science for this situation, a text book case, but let us avoid the name for now.

We will only remark, that those title deeds are headed to vaults in banks where the same Mr. President, who just issued them, holds sway via the usual 'constructions' in the market. Extolling the peasants to go for loans, is impeccable advice ---no two ways about that . But when you consider the political economics of the peasantry vis a vis the usurious lenders in the backdrop of a comprador bourgeoisie regime, then it is a 'we have a situation' situation!

[jakaswanga]

PWANI SI KENYA: WOOING HER BACK, ODINGA VS KENYATTA AS SUITORS.

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092568&story_title=president-uhuru-kenyatta-tells-off-raila-odinga-on-title-deeds&pageNo=2

President Uhuru Kenyatta tells off Raila Odinga on title deeds

Updated Monday, September 2nd 2013 at 16:56 GMT +3

“We are issuing these title deeds because we know they will unleash our country’s potential. The title deeds can be used to get loans from banks to initiate income generating activities that will empower people,” the President said.

He told Raila to shut up, stop politicizing the issue, make himself useful elsewhere..

There the son of Jomo is out of order and needs to be silly-boy slapped.

I think the president's, and his deputy's minds, are completely muddled up on this: When the Prezzo and his side-kick of a deputy take center stage, dishing out T-deeds and letting peasanst eat out of their hands, all in full coverage of the media, in a hotly contested region over a highly controversial and emotive issue, with widespread talk of a referendum, that act in itself is a spectacular piece of propaganda politics which the opposition would be well advised to neutralise. In that sense, Raila's senses are sharp and well-oiled. ---His deriding the president, that his excellency was neither a clerk of the Land Commission, nor a desk ordely at the local Land's office, was therefore apt; and it appears it did hit home, forcing the president into an irate response.

well, You do not order the leader of the opposition to shut up when in critic of you! That is his job description, son of Jomo. Stop being a silly sensitive boy in office.

Going into a tantrum to shut up the opposition when they annoy you in a multi-party setting is to be a real dikhead! Take a leaf from Cameron over Milliband when the later torpedoed his plans for war-games beside Obama: --he fumed: Milliband is a FC and a dirty-bottomed SOB!

Find something equivalent to say of Raila! ----By the way, Orengo claims these title deeds you are issuing were processed under his tenure at the GCG? Which makes you an opportunistic parasite!

[jakaswanga]

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092432&story_title=uhuru-orders-probe-into-coast-land-grab

This is an intriguing topic: TITLE DEEDS IN KENYA. And I love the fact that one way or another, President Kenyatta is breaking the stalemate! Shows how desperate he is, but necessity is the mother of progress! and a desperate man can be radical.

I am aware Njakip has described the two leading dailies of Kenya as the daily SH!t and the standard morning Piss, nevertheless let me run the risk of using one of them extensively to illustrate a point. I do not vouch for the information contained therein, but we all can read between the lines.

Let us go;

Reacting to claims by Lamu residents that land in the area and other parts of Coast region was illegally allocated to influential people in the previous government, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu to investigate the allegations. Mrs Ngilu’s docket includes land and housing.
The President also put on notice Lands officials who were involved in the land-grabbing scheme that their days are numbered.

PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS! [not governments]

THAT is the Great GCG in which Mr. Kenyatta himself was .... but never mind. It is Orengo and his corrupt tenure in hot soup! Selective solutions.
www.nation.co.ke/news/Illegal+title+deeds+to+be+revoked+Charity+Ngilu+says/-/1056/1976848/-/lao59l/-/index.html

Addressing the gathering, Deputy President Ruto said land allocation in Lamu done three years ago should be reviewed.
“It is not possible to have less that 100 people allocated one million acres while the residents were only given titles of an acre or slightly more… this is something that should be condemned and rectified,” said Ruto.

Done three years ago![/quote] Good that Ruto knows the meanings of those words: condemned and rectified, they could apply, given a bit of self introspection, to his case with the IDP dispossed!

But if what he says is true: Orengo would match Cameron's description of David Milliband.

RAILA'S TAKE

However, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has faulted the move, saying the function of issuing of landtitle deeds should be left to the National Lands Commission.
He said the President should have used the occasion to allow the commission to begin its job of identifying land that was taken away from the people at the Coast and return it to rightful owners.

“The issue of land is bigger than mere issuing of title deeds and so the government should take land reforms seriously and not just make it a public relations exercise.

But it is a long running story, and this was just the latest flare up!

FEB-21-2012: The government has recovered land that was set aside for the construction of the multi-billion shilling Lamu Port but had been dubiously acquired by tycoons.
Lands minister James Orengo said the decision by a cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure also resulted in the cancellation of thousands of title deeds issued on the 500 acres.

======================
======================
LAST YEAR 2012.

Kenya: Title Deeds Revoked Within Lamu Port Site

BY ALPHONCE GARI, 23 FEBRUARY 2012
RELATED TOPICS
Kenya
Kenya: Help Solve Land Problem or Shut Up...
Land and Rural Issues
Kenya: Ruto, Raila Differ Over Issuance of...
THE government revoked 10 title deeds covering 500 acres of land within the proposed Multi billion Lamu port project site which were acquired dubiously.
Lands minister James Orengo told journalists in Lamu that the land had been acquired illegally by high profile individuals through company names. Orengo said this while on a tour of Lamu together with other ministers to ease tension after residents threatened to protest during the ground breaking for the port project. He said they were investigating other areas which were acquired illegally.
He said the 10 tittles were revoked last November and the genuine owners will be given back their land. "We revoked some tittles which had been acquired in a dubious manner and there are many more others which will be revoked once survey work is complete," he said. The government is processing 6000 title deeds which will be given to locals to enable them have genuine ownership documents for their land.
He said areas set to benefit include Ras Kitau, Mokowe, some Swahili villages, Hindi among others. The minister said the number could be more as he did not have the exact figure of the tittles which would be delivered but disclosed that the government was committed to issue tittles to the genuine owners. Orengo said the names of the companies are available in his office.

www.marsgroupkenya.org/youth/index.php?option=com_mmedia&story=305783

Orengo Revokes Deeds For Grabbed Public Land

Oct 5th, 2010
By SAM KIPLAGAT [e-mail]
Lands minister James Orengo has cancelled more than 50 title deeds for public land issued to influential people by the government of former President Daniel arap Moi.
The revoked title deeds include those for government houses in prime areas in different parts of the country and land set aside for public use.
Whereas the new Constitution guarantees protection of private property under Article 40, the protection does not extend to any property that is found to have been acquired illegally according to Article 40(6). In a Kenya Gazette Notice dated October 1, 2010, Mr Orengo revoked a total of 58 title deeds issued to powerful individuals in the Moi regime...
Full Article
ALSO IN MULTIM

I gather Charity Ngilu is busy doing the same to title deeds issued to influential people in the neighbourhood of the former PM!

Selective solutions based on bureaucratic egocentric amnesia, they come back quickly to bite! Next! yesterday it was the dog Orengo, today the dog Ngilu, tomorrow time will tell!

[Daktari wa makazi]

Expropriation of native lands in Kenya.

In a nutshell, the British settlers literally grabbed native Maasai and Kalenjin lands in Rift Valley and Miji-Kenda, Taita and Taveta land at the Coast. At the Coast, there was also the added grabbing hand of the Middle-East Sultans who lay claim to another Coastal strip. Millions of voters from these communities (now deeply affected by landlessness and poverty) are today largely drawn towards ODM’s reform policies that seek to address these

INJUSTICES.

Long before Independence, vast arable tracts of the Rift Valley were designated as White Highlands, reserved for European settlers. The pastoralist communities, mainly Kalenjin and Maasai, were simply moved away. The 1904 and 1911 Anglo-Maasai land “Agreements” details the unjust grabbing of Maasai lands in Laikipia, Naivasha, Ngong, Karen, and tracts along the Uganda Railway line whereby uneducated Maasai Laibons either friendly to, or fearful of the British (christened Paramount Chiefs) like Lenana Ole Mbatian, were cajoled and intimidated into giving away native fertile Maasai land to the colonialists.

The words in the “Agreements” read like ……”we the undersigned, being the Laibons of clans of Maasai, have of our own free will, decided that it is for OUR best interests to REMOVE OUR PEOPLE, FLOCKS, AND HERDS into definite reservations away from the Railway line and away from European settlements…..” and “…..In conclusion, we wish to state that we are quite satisfied with the foregoing arrangement, and we bind ourselves and our successors, as well as OUR PEOPLE, to observe them as long as the Maasai as a race shall exist..”

The next thing we knew was that the Maasai were crumbled into arid portions of present day Kajiado and Narok districts. Grazing fields, and the very pastoral lifestyle of the Maasai instantly became threatened and continues to do so as we speak, without any restitution, compensation or pro-active rehabilitation into another life. 100 years later, when asked to address this burning Maasai land issue,
former Lands Minister appointed by Mwai Kibaki, Mr. Amos Kimunya (now Finance Minister), once told the Maasai that there was nothing to address since the wise Maasai forefathers had given away their land to the British in a BINDING AGREEMENT which continues to apply to date.

Well, similar horrid but true stories applied in Kalenjin lands of Rift Valley and at the Coast too. Before independence, Kenyan political parties argued over whether the native land should be returned to the indigenous population under a federalist system of government or kept firmly under the control of a centralised state. Needless to add, those who favoured the latter option, in the form of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), which went on to form a government under Jomo Kenyatta, prevailed.

PART 2:

1963 – Independence, enter Jomo Kenyatta and GEMA Landbuying companies. Trouble is, we had a majimbo constitution at independence. Jennifer Widner explained in her 1992 book, The Rise of A Party-State in Kenya: From "Harambee!" to "Nyayo!" that KANU urged central control of all regions in an effort to forestall local majimbo legislation restricting land transfer to those born in the area, and to maintain the foothold of the party's Kikuyu supporters in the Rift Valley land market".

Many settlers were returning to Britain. Kenyatta and his cronies quickly formed the Settlement Transfer Fund Schemes (STFS) and asked the British for a loan to the Kenyan government, to buy off land from colonial settlers returning to Britain. Good idea up to this point. Britain, having been reassured by Kenyatta that those settlers still wishing to stay on in Kenya would not have their land repossessed, advanced the money. This money was used to buy settler land which was officially sold into the Kenyatta initiated Settlement Transfer Fund Schemes (STFS).

Next, Kenyatta began to give away and sell for peanuts, these government (STFS)-acquired, former colonial land parcels, to himself, his family and cronies around 1964 and 1965. This is the point when the rain started beating Kenya.

Kenyatta’s then Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, cried foul and rejected these acts of wanton land grabbing. The opportunity to choose nationalism and selflessness over greed and ethnic tendencies was lost. Rather than address this land issue once and for all, Kenyatta opted to REPLACE the settler colonialist in land they had initially grabbed from natives. We have began harvesting the seeds of the mustard sown by Kenyatta in the 1960s. It will not be sweet at all. The Seroneys and other Nandi and Kipsigis leaders immediately cried foul when Kenyatta ensued in his land grabbing tendencies. So were many Maasai and Miji-Kenda leaders like Ronald Ngala. Their cries were feeble and over run. Today and tomorrow, their descendants will demand justice and restitution in an exercise that threatens to tear apart Kenya’s social fabric.

Who will shoulder the burden of the fruits enjoyed by Kenyatta and his cronies, Moi and his cronies, and Kibaki and his latter day cronies? Will it be the poor Kenyan taxpayer taking the bill in form of blood, and more taxes? Going back....down memory lane..... in the immediate post-independence era, the moment, the Seroneys and Ogingas started crying foul, and nothing was done, we entered a dangerous phase of our nation’s socio-political path. The political leadership of Kenya began carving out into two distinct groups. The pro-Kenyatta land beneficiaries, sycophants and apologists were Tom
Mboya, Daniel Moi, Paul Ngei and others. Another force resisting the greedy post-Independence governance by Kenyatta was led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, and included several former KADU operatives like Ronald Ngala, Jean Marie Seroney, Masinde Muliro, Martin Shikuku and others.

Kenyatta soldiered on with his grabbing. He concurrently went ahead with the help of Tom Mboya to change the constitution to give immense imperial powers to the Presidency. He further began using such powers to allocate more land to his cronies and sycophants. His salivating appetite for Rift Valley land largely motivated his choice of Rift Valley natives as Vice President after Oginga Odinga. First he chose a Maasai, Joseph Murumbi, who read the scheme of land-betrayal on his people and resigned in a huff.

Then Kenyatta selected Daniel Arap Moi, a Tugen not drawn in the Nandi and Kipsigis land battles, as his next loyal VP. He then descended upon grabbing Rift Valley and Coastal land in a business as usual and “mtafanya nini” attitude that Kibaki is trying to emulate today. Kenyatta cronies including Mbiyu Koinange, Njoroge Mungai and others devised a clever scheme to further benefit themselves from the land transferred from the colonialists. They formed land-buying companies through loans which were actually funded with tax-payer money.

At the height of land buying companies, most of the power brokers acquired huge chunks of land at the expense of the landless, who were meant to be the initial beneficiaries of the scheme. According to Widner (in her book), by 1971, more than 60% large-scale farms around Nakuru and 40% of small scale settler farms, were held by Kikuyu, who fared very well from this arrangement, at the expense of other Kenyan communities.

Another scholar noted that "Using the political and economic leverage available to them during the Kenyatta regime, the Kikuyu, took advantage of the situation and formed many land-buying companies. These companies would, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, facilitate the settlement of hundreds of thousands of Kikuyu in the Rift Valley," wrote Walter Oyugi in Politicised Ethnic Conflict in Kenya: A Periodic Phenomenon. In 1969, Jean Marie Seroney, a leading Nandi politician and MP, issued the Nandi Hills Declaration, laying claim to all settlement land in the district for the Nandi. His demands went unheeded.Aping the British, Kenyatta government used a policy of divide-and-rule to neutralise such opposition by parcelling out land to other ethnic groups and thus winning their allegiance. Daniel arap Moi, the then Tugen vice-president was allocated the settler farms of the Lembus Forest and the Essageri Salient to divide the Tugen from the Nandi like Seroney.

PART 3: The Grabbers of the Rift Valley

Most of the power brokers in the Kenyatta regime who formed land-buying companies established huge farms in the Rift Valley either jointly or on their own. They included Njenga Karume, the then Chairman of Gema Holdings, who acquired 20,000 acres in Molo where he is growing tea, coffee, pyrethrum and potatoes and 16,000 acres in Naivasha. GG Kariuki acquired his 5,000 acres at Rumuruti, Laikipia Division, while former Attoney-General Charles Njonjo bought into the 100,000 acre Solio Ranch. Don’t forget, grabbing of settler land in Central by many colonial collaborators, at the expense of the Mau Mau fighters, was part of the scheme.

Senior Chief Munyinge from Muiga took 400 acres. Initially, senior chief Munyinge was allocated only 70 acres but with time he managed to acquire 330 more acres.

Mwai Kibaki acquired 20,000 acres in Nanyuki.

Former MP the late Munene Kairu has 32,000 acres at Rumuruti.

Mr Isaiah Mathenge, the former powerful Provincial Commissioner under Kenyatta and an MP under Moi, is arguably the largest land owner in Nyeri municipality. He owns Seremwai Estate, which is 10,000 acres.

Kibaki’s friend, Kim Ngatende, a former government engineer, has 500 acres too. Mathenge also owns—jointly with former Provincial Commissioner Lukas Daudi Galgalo—the 10, 000-acre Manyagalo Ranch in Meru.

Back in Rift Valley, as Jaramogi and the rest of Kenyans were saying, Not Yet Uhuru, it was land grabbing business as usual. Land-buying companies were heisting big. The result was big acquisitions, for instance, Munyeki Farm— which stands for Murang’a, Nyeri, Kiambu – (4,000 acres), Wamuini Farm (6,000 acres), Amuka Farm (2,000 acres), Gituaraba Farm and Githatha Farm
(1,000 acres each) and GEMA Holdings 12,000 acres. A few of them are being utilized, today with the owners growing various crops ranging from
coffee, tea, maize and dairy keeping.

The other big farms include Chepchomo Farm (18, 000 acres), owned by the former Provincial Commissioner Ishmael Chelang’a. The family of the late Peter Kinyanjui, who was a close friend of President Mwai Kibaki and a former DP Chairman in Trans Nzoia between 1998 and 1999 owns 1,800 acres.

In Nakuru, several politically connected individuals have acquired many acres of prime land within the town—they include lawyer Mutula Kilonzo, who owns an 800-acre farm for dairy farming. The immediate former Auditor General, D. G. Njoroge, owns 500 acres, while Biwott’s Canadian son-in-law & coowner of Safaricom (Mobitelea) a Mr. Charles Field-Marsham, boasts a 100-acre piece where he is growing roses.

D. G. Njoroge also owns the extensive Kelelwa Ranch in Koibatek, is less than 10km from Kabarak, where he rears cattle and goats. The 10,000 acre Gitomwa Farm—acronym for Gichuru, Tony and Mwaura—is owned by the family of the former Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) managing director, Samuel Gichuru. Tony and Mwaura are his sons.

Another 10,000 acre farm in Mau Narok belongs to the family of the late Mbiyu Koinange, Kenyatta’s side-kick and powerful minister of state in the Office of the President. His Muthera Farm (4,000ha) is leased to different people to grow wheat, while a group of squatters is demanding a piece of it.

The owners are yet to clear the Sh7 million Settlement Transfer Fund loan.

Ford-People leader Simeon Nyachae’s Kabansora Holdings owns 4,000ha in the area.

Former Rongai MP Willy Komen’s family owns 10,000 acres — 5,000ha adjacent to Moi’s Kabarak Farm and another 4,800ha near Ngata in Njoro.

Coast Province was not spared. Kenyatta family owns almost 15% the prime resort land in the province, besides a huge sisal plantation spanning both Taita and Taveta districts, safely watched by his son-in-law and former MP Marsden Madoka, and another close friend to Uhuru Kenyatta, and current Minister in Kibaki’s Coalition Government, Naomi Shaban.

PART 4: Kenyatta’s Land holdings

Kenya’s two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country. 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. (This report first appeared in the Standard Newspaper report
by Mr. Otsieno Namwaya).

The Kibaki and Moi families also own large tracts, most held in the names of sons and daughters and other close family members, all concentrated within the 17.2 % of Kenya that is arable or valued. Remember that 80 per cent of all land in Kenya is mostly arid and semi arid land.

According to the Kenya Land Alliance, more than a 65% of all arable land in Kenya is in the hands of only 20 per cent of the 35 million Kenyans. That has left millions 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, he used the elaborate STFS scheme funded by the World Bank and the British Government, to acquired large pieces of land all over the country. Other tracts, he easily allocated to his family.

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 Kenyatta. 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. There is another 200 acres in Mombasa, and 250 acres in Malindi.

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.
Uhuru owns 5,000 acres in Eldoret, 3,000 acres in Rongai and 12,000 acres in Naivasha, 100 acres in Karen, and 200 acres in Dagoretti. A 1,000-acre farm in Dagoretti is 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 and transferred to the Kenyatta family the same day Criticos sold it to the government. Land for the two universities was subsequently sold partly and a portion donated by the family.{/quote]

wikileaks-press.org:81/file/kenya-who-owns-the-land.pdf

[dineo]

Jakaswanga,

Just because Orengo claims something happened under his watch doesn't mean it is factual.

To me, he sounds like he's just trying to cover his behind. But because I claim that doesn't mean it's factual.

You sound more annoyed that Uhuru told Odinga to shut up, than anything. If Odinga can dish it, then he better be ready to take it, because currently in many Coastal circles, he's being called a lot worse, given the emergence of news that he and his crony Orengo parceled out over 200,000 acres in Lamu, Faza and Pate (basically all available land around the soon-to-be Lamu International Port) to themselves, which they then promptly sold to their their ODM underlings (e.g. that highway robber Caroli Omondi) in the past three years. Waamu leaders complained to Rais about these allocations this past week and asked him to cancel the allocations.

And if you've been following the dailies, Uhuru ordered Mrs. Ngilu to go ahead and do just that: i.e., cancel all land allocations in that area to government officials in the previous administration. Miguna Miguna really was right about that bunch of thieves in ODM...

Regarding the title of your post, Pwani ni Kenya. Very many of us waPwani have nothing to do with that crazy, rudderless, MRC lot - colonised idiots still looking up to some imaginary Arab kingdom as their homeland. That "pwani si kenya" ship has sailed.