from ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2011
You wonder why for example, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda could just give away Mabira forest for foreign private investors when he knows very well that it is a rain forest, even after he was advised not to give-away the forest land as he would be acting against Article 237(2) of the Constitution and Section 44(1) of the Land Act cap. 227.
Not only that, Mr Museveni knows very well that Mabira was gazetted as a Central Forest Reserve under legal notice No. 87 of 1932 as an area of 29,592 hectares and that in legal notice No. 41 of 1948, the forest reserve was re-gazetted, expanding to an area of 30,003 hectares.
All the same Museveni has justified the sale of forests, saying it opens more land for industrialisation, despite the fact that Environmentalists and the local people have protested the proposal to give the foreigner investor, Mehta Group 5,000 hectares of Mabira forest to cultivate sugarcane.
You also wonder why retired Presidents Benjamin Mkapa and Ali Hassan Mwinyi, former prime ministers Frederick Sumaye and John Malecela, ex-CCM secretary general Philip Mangula and former cabinet minister Iddi Simba could just wake up one morning and make people landless by grabbing their lands.
This brings us to the big question as to why many foreign investors target Africa. A friend of mine told me the other day that Africa is being targeted because ‘African farmland prices are the lowest in the world’ and ‘it is the last frontier’. That is why many African leaders, and foreign investors, peddle the myth that there is a vast amount of vacant, unused land, owned by no one – and hence available to outsiders.
As Tanzanian shadow minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Ms Halima Mdee (Kawe-Chadema), warns, that unless the government controlled the allocation of vast tracts of land to a few powerful individuals, it was creating a “ticking time bomb.”
Land disputes between investors and wananchi may she warns may cause bloodletting. Politicians had acquired big chunks of land that was earmarked for Wami villagers in Morogoro Region with former presidents Mwinyi acquiring 2,000 hectares and Mkapa 1,000 hectares, Mr Sumaye has 500 hectares, former cabinet minister Hassan Ngwilizi, who is now Mlalo MP (CCM) 100 hectares, Mr Malecela 100 and Mr Mangula 2,000 hectares.
Surprisingly all these hectares of land had not yet been developed except 1,000 hectares belonging to Mr Mkapa. According to the shadow minister,14,437 hectares of paddy fields at Mbarali and 18,425 paddy farms at Kapunga in Mbeya, which catered for 30,000 villagers from 10 villages had been allocated to a businessman and a CCM member.
The minister who tabled the motion in the parliament recently said the government dubiously allocated the paddy fields to Mbeya CCM chairman Nawab Mulla and businessman Jeetu Patel also known as Jayantkumar Chandubhai Patel. She said they acquired the land at giveaway prices.
Others include two companies — Agrisoil Energy and Serengeti Advisors Ltd — owned by Mr Iddi Simba, a former minister for Industry and Trade, acquired a 99-year-lease for 80,317 hectares at Lugufu and 219,800 hectares at Mishamo in Rukwa Region and Coast and Mara regions where the government has allocated big chunks of land to politicians, businessmen and investors as.
It is not only that, the Village Land Act No 5 of 1999 had to be amended to allow investors and developers to directly negotiate with farmers or villagers in acquiring any plot according to a senior official of ActionAid Tanzania.
Under the village Land Act there are provisions that empower the President to declare and transfer village land to reserved land. This may happen as a result of advice that the President may receive from Local Government Authority in that particular area.
In Kenya, Ugandans living on the Migingo Islands are in panic following a heavy deployment of Kenyan administration officers near a contested island. Kenya sent over 50 officers on Monday to the island ready for war should Museveni insist of taking away the Island.
But why did President Kibaki take that long to claim back the Island? While details have emerged that despite Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s feigning ignorance about the dispute, the combined force of Uganda Peoples Defence Air Force (UPDAF), Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) marines, and police involved had his full backing, rumour has it that Kibaku gave the Island as a token after Museveni had helped him with soldiers to shoot Raila’s supporters in Nyanza during the post election violence.
It is also rumoured that Uganda, which caught Kenya off-guard over the Migingo saga, is now keen on “reclaiming” the island by intercepting any Kenyan military activity near the island. That is probably why Kenya has decided to send its troop should Museveni’s uniform men and women attack Kenyan fishermen.
In a confidential memo availed to the press and written by the Ugandan Inspector-General of Police Edward Kale Kayihura, a copy of which was in their possession, the Ugandan Government claims that Kenya had initially agreed that Migingo was Ugandan territory. This confirms the rumour that it was given as a token.
While the two governments agreed that the current status of the island, namely that it is Ugandan territory according to the memo be maintained, according to media report it is on this premise that Migingo was in Uganda that Museveni launched the February 20 rapid assault to “reclaim” it from Kenya Administration Police “aggressors” on sovereign Ugandan territory.
Some Kenyans have even expressed fear that Museveni, like Amin, could lay claim to Kenya up to Naivasha with his recently acquired air power. Just like Kibaki has been silence over Migingo dispute for long, some of these Kenyans think there is anything much Kibaki could do about it if Museveni decides to take up to Naivasha.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org