Land Issue Revisited

Mr. Judas,
Cool down own your anger towards the Kikuyu people.  You make it seem like these guys are nothing more than Highway robberers.  

Anyway, your land policy is whack, and lacks balanced thought.  You cannot re-do history. Yeah, you can say post-independence is to blame.  Let me give you an insider view on the Kikuyu people.  Land is a first child to a Kikuyu person.  Without it, you are not complete. Second, alot of these big chunks of land, are owned by a few elite people of ALL tribes.
In central we have the Njonjos, in Rift Valley, the Moi’s, in Nyanza the Odinga’s etc.  

Therefore, look at landowners as an elite class of all dimensions.  Don’t feel threatened by that.  It is what you call OLD WEALTH, though important, it is not the driving force for the future.  The Kalenjin may seem to get back their land, but they are coming too late in the game.  The second generation of the Kikuyus don’t even care for that much land their
fathers may have.  Why? because they are doctors, lawyers, etc.  

Land is for the wazee’s!!!!!!!, the next big thing in Kenya is IT industry.  In actual fact, the second generation is selling off that land to settle in the city and start a financial consulting firm etc.  
The land issue, though you make it big, is actually losing traction with the new Kikuyu generation.  My father has land that I have never seen, and himself he only saw it once.  This is very common in Kenya.  The best initiative to solving this problem is by the
government buying back most of the land in some of the displaced places and establishing settlement schemes.
Kenyatta was advised by the white colonialists but backed down.  The mess we have in Kenya as far as land is concerned cannot be solved by evicting people by force.  So what even if you evict them, you cannot sell it, all you can do is be a squatter on someone else’s land just like in the slums of Nairobi.  

The real land reform is zoning land according to urban, suburbs and agricultural.  This means that all people in the country, regardless of their location cannot subdivide land carelessly without meeting the zoning requirements.  That means leaving the already
established big chunks of land for large scale farming, and make it unsudividable regardless of who owns it.

We Kenyans in the diaspora need not send messages to bring division.  Just imagine your professor sending a hate message that is biased.  Though it satisfies his ego, it goes beneath his character.  

Mr Judas, I don’t know what you do in your life, but your bias against Kikuyus is more like a laughing joke, because your junk emails are more like George Kanstanza on his first date.  Relax, take a deep breadth, and say “I love you” !!!

Cheers,
Mike  

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Rono

I have followed and carefully read your articles on land issues in Kenya and it has shocked my conscience.  You have confirmed what I have always believed that, the main problem in Kenya is land which has been grabbed by the political families of those mentioned in your article.  No wonder they do not want those displaced to go back to their ancestral lands, for they may lay claim to their stolen land.

ODM and the people of Kenya should ensure that constitutional changes on land as proposed in the Bomas draft become law through an act of parliament.  It is a real shame to see a few priviledged families owning our country with little care for others.

Dickson Aduonga 

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For a more in-depth analysis of Kenya’s land issue, please see: http://www.jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Job020608.html

Regards,

Jaluo Press

5 thoughts on “Land Issue Revisited

  1. admin

    Kenyans,

    You both have very good points about this land problem. I do hope we
    solve it this time ones and for all. So people like Karua should not keep on showing cruel eyes on the negotiation table. Each and every Kenyan has a property he values, if somebody values industries , high story buildings, tarmac and pavements etc well and good go ahead. If the other values savana grass, land to cultivate or have some of his goats that should also be respected. But remember guys that the bottom line is this: ALL HUMAN BEINGS EAT WHAT IS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY COMING FROM THAT LAND, EVEN THOSE INDUSTRIES MAKING FOOD WILL NEED LAND SOMEWHERE TO GROW FOOD; YOU CAN NOT GROW FOOD ON AIR AT THE MOMENT or IN
    THE TARMAC ROADS ETC. So land is very important even to those who are
    now not admitting that they have not seen their land somewhere etc.

    Just a small advice but as Kenyans we should solve what has brought
    all these messes we do witness today in our country.

    Thanks again guys. Paul Nyandoto.

    ————————
    George wrote:

    Mwangi this is a good piece you should share it with those Kikuyus holed up in churches and show grounds in Rift Valley. They may consider IT as an option and leave us peacefully with our land. Most other IDPs have left for their ancestral lands. In Naivasha the last lot left yesterday.

    Post by George edited for content by Jaluo Press. Posted on behalf of Paul and George by Jaluo Press.

  2. admin

    Michael,

    1. Could you please tell me of a huge piece of land owned by the Odingas, seems like I’m ignorant to that fact. My understanding is that Odinga fell out with Kenyatta mostly on the Land issue. I would really want to know how the Odingas participated in the stealing of land. Please Mwangi enlighten me, I’m really in the dark on this one.

    2. How did the Wabeberu get the land in Kenya? Through unjust treaties and laws. That is why people rose to fight the colonialists. Just because they left does not mean that the issue of contention was solved. Land was the issue of contention. Remember the book “Not Yet Uhuru”. It speaks volumes of a stolen independence. Independence was never a racial issue, it was a justice issue. Just because the British transfered leadership from a white imperialist to a black imperialist does not mean that Independence was attained. The fight for Independence was a fight against unjust laws to pave way for justice and equality. St Thomas Aquinas explained eloquently the difference between just laws and unjust laws, he said “Any law that uplifts human personality is just and any law that degrades human personality is unjust”. Martin Luther King went further to use those words to justify why in their fight for civil rights they chose to follow some laws and disobey others. King said that one has not just a legal responsibility but a moral one to follow just laws at the same time pointing to the fact that one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws arguing that an unjust law is no law at all.

    Below is a link that speaks volumes, it may shed light on some facts that we tend to sweep under the carpet. Personally, I doubt if the Oginga Odinga grabbed land but if proven otherwise then I will lose respect for Oginga Odinga. A the same we should have very little respect for the leaders who grabbed land and call them out. Mwangi, please let us know of any land that
    Oginga Odinga grabbed.

    http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/kikuyu/maumau.htm

    Posted on behalf of Eric by Jaluo Press.

  3. Pingback: Land Issue Revisited (Round 2) at Jaluo -student scholarship, scholarship for college, scholarship , scholarship for kenyans, college scholarship, school scholarship

  4. KEN WAMUTIRI

    My understanding on the whole saga is that my Kikuyu (GEMA) tribe is capitalistic while most of the other tribes seem to uphold socialistic lifestyle; Kiuks are agressive in search of wealth and have very little time for anything that does not point towards this objective be it education.We are quite envied which in some instances laed to jealousy thus hatred. This is also experienced among the Gusii people who are equally hardworking. Most of your elites marry our daughters to get this clique in their offsprings, but e also have our shortcomings like any other tribe but this is not as pronounced. we r peace loving until we are provoked when we become lethal as you might soon come to realise when Anan fails.We r watching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ken

  5. Slytheron

    Dear Friends,

    It’s very encouraging to see that we all seem to know where the problems lies, at least one of the problems.

    I’m amazed by your insight into the matter. It’s only sad that despite the fact that more and more Kenyans get to know the facts, despite their absence in the history books, no one has so far done anything to correct it.

    Our politicians find themselves in a bind due to their fear of the unknown. How is a man who has lived on stolen property for the last fourty odd years to start earning an honest living? It’s impossible. You wouldn’t blame some of these people. They do not know how to live honest open lives.

    The problem between the British and the Kenyan people was never a racial one. People, I think, seem to forget this. The British were nothing more than thieves. The only difference between then and now is that we have a new group of thieves. How do we get rid of them? Well, if you ask me, the way we got rid of the last ones.

    I feel bad for the people of Central Province who have for long been touted as prosperous. In reality, only a few of them are. The majority are poor just like every other Kenyan out there. They are on the verge of starvation due to the drying up of rivers used to feed the greed of the new theives.

    A drought, yes, a draught may occur this year in Central. And something tells me Martha Karua will not suffer from its effects either.

    So brothers are we going to continue fighting each other or fight the real enemy, the new thief? I will be waiting for your answer. You know what to do.

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