By Kipchumba Some

Disputes over land ownership in Rift Valley pits two communities against each other – the Kalenjin, who regard themselves as the indigenous community, and the Kikuyu, who are regarded as the migrant community.

The disputes stem from the premise held by Kalenjins that Kikuyus were helped by the Government of Mzee Kenyatta to acquire land in their ancestral home.

The colonial government, in the mid-1940s, sowed the seed of discord. Colonial documents accessed by The Standard on Sunday show that in 1957, the Annual Colonial Government Report for Elgeyo-Marakwet said: "In common with other Kalenjin people however, there is everywhere else dislike of the Kikuyu settlement being established in what is regarded as their district’s sphere of influence in Uasin Gishu."

Another report released the same year, Inter-Tribal Affairs, notes: "The ever growing number of Kikuyus in the forests is causing some light concern among the Elgeyos who feel that … their intermediate school places will be filled by their progeny. The general attitude is that ‘the Kikuyu are cleverer than us; we had better watch out’."

The groundwork for this hatred was laid much earlier by the colonial farmers’ blind desire for more land. By the turn of the 19th century, the colonial government had pushed many communities into reserves and squatter camps to create land for their cash crops. The worst hit were Central, Rift Valley and Coast provinces.

Being pastoralists, however, Kalenjins struck a rather unique deal with the colonial farmers, which allowed the community to work on the white farms but still have access to swathes of grazing fields. But things changed in 1940s, explains Ms Susan Choge, a history lecturer at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology.

She says Kalenjins were also growing in number and that their pastoral lifestyle was taking up too much land. This was proving a hindrance to the colonialists’ ambitions of expanding their farms. It therefore became necessary for the farmers to confine Kalenjins in squatter camps to reduce the amount of grazing land.

"The excuse they used was that Kalenjins were lazy. They then broke the understanding they had with the community and started confining them in squatter camps and limited the movement of their animals," she points out.

"They, of course, went away with the bitterness that they had been chased away from the land of their fathers, only for another community to occupy it. It is a bitterness that never dissipated," Choge explains.

The colonialists had brought in Kikuyus from Central Province to work on their farms. They argued that Kikuyus were more productive since they had a history of farming.

By the 1950s, Kikuyus in Rift Valley had grown tremendously in number, and this did not go down well with the local community, says Mr Ken Wafula, the executive director of the Centre for Human Rights, an NGO based in Eldoret.

The organisation has done research titled Demystifying Historical Injustices Around Land In Rift Valley, which analyses the nature and causes of land conflicts in Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia and Nandi districts.

"Notes from files of colonial administrators we have accessed indicate that as early as 1952, the local community had expressed dissatisfaction with the movement of Kikuyus into what they considered their ancestral land," he says.

Upon the recommendation of the Uasin Gishu DC at the time, Mr P H Brown, the transfer of Kikuyus from Central to Rift Valley was temporarily halted. However, Wafula says: "It was resumed after the DC who succeeded him, Mr R Symes-Thompson, wrote to his bosses to tell them that Kikuyus were needed to boost production in the farms."

If the colonial governments had set the conditions for the bad blood between Kalenjins and Kikuyus, the Government of Mzee Kenyatta ensured they blossomed into outright hatred. Foremost, in 1961, the colonial government set aside one million acres to resettle the landless when it became apparent that it would have to relinquish power.

But this came with two conditions that complicated the land issue.

The first was that Kenyans were free to own land anywhere. This meant people who had been displaced from their homes would not necessarily move back upon attainment of independence. The second was there is no free land. It was to be acquired on a willing-seller-willing-buyer basis. This made it possible for the rich to acquire huge tracts at the expense of the poor, the driving force behind the struggle for independence.

In line with the latter requirement, the colonial government advanced the new government a loan of $100 million under the Settler Transfer Fund to buy farms for squatters. Wafula reckons this was the biggest mistake the independence government made in handling the land issue.

"Why was the Government buying back land which colonialists got for free?" he wonders.

"It convoluted the problem further and exposed it to corruption, which became the hallmark of the exercise."

Even in these circumstances, land distribution among the affected communities was skewed. Experts agree that land distribution during the Kenyatta regime favoured the Kikuyu. "The Kikuyu had several advantages over other communities," says a lands expert who does not wish to be identified by name, saying this could compromise his relations with some organisations.

It had the full backing of the Government. They (Kikuyus) had easy access to the money given by the colonialists and also loans from banks. This made it easier for them to buy land from other communities that were comparatively disadvantaged in terms of the power equation."

Concerned about the rapid loss of land, fiery Tinderet MP Jean Marie Seroney convened a meeting at Nandi Hills in 1969 to tackle the issue.

The resultant Nandi Hills Declaration laid unequivocal claim to all land in Nandi for the community, and resolved to oppose further settlement of Kikuyus in the district.

Of course, many other Kikuyus in Rift Valley are latter-day migrants who acquired land on a willing seller-willing-buyer basis. However this fact seems to have been lost in the raging hatred between the two communities.