President Uhuru Kenyatta yet to solve historical land injustices at the coast

Squatters from Nguu Tatu village protest after police and Masai morans demolished their houses during eviction in Kisauni Sub-County, last year. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

President Uhuru Kenyatta faces a daunting task to stop the emotive land issue at the Coast being a campaign issue.

He revisited the land question in his State of the Nation address taking credit for reforms initiated out so far.

He noted that more than one million title deeds have been issued bringing the number issued since 2013 to 2,405,000.

He expressed confidence that the government will surpass the three million target of new title deeds by 2017 adding that “substantive solutions” to old land disputes have been realised across the country.

“From Mpeketoni in Lamu, to Waitiki in Mombasa; from Kihiu-Mwiri in Murang’a to Nyeri colonial villages; from settlement schemes in Taita Taveta to those of Trans Nzoia-in every region of the republic, substantive solution to old disputes have been realised,” Kenyatta told Parliament on March 31.

But scholars and land rights activists at the Coast say the Jubilee administration has hardly scratched the surface and the President will have to make amends for mistakes done during his father’s reign to impress Coast residents.

The indigenous communities point to the 1960s and early 1970s mass settlement of migrant tribes in Mpeketoni, Lamu and the influx of “land grabbers” in other parts of the Coast as historical injustices perpetuated by past regimes.

Besides, the Kenyatta family owns 30,000 acres of land in Taita Taveta County, which has not gone down well with most squatters.

Pwani University lecturer Hassan Mwakimako says the land question at the Coast is also compounded by local politics and interests of influential families. He observes that although Kenyatta is battling perception that he is “held hostage by his father’s legacy,” the land issue is more complex than just laying it at the doorstep of the first president.

“There is a perception that people with huge chunk of land are from upcountry. Most of the land especially the so called absentee land lords are local or people from this region who have been able to ascend to political positions to protect themselves,” said Dr Mwakimako. But Prof Saad Yahya says the Jubilee government and the National Land Commission (NLC) have the opportunity to solve the problem given most 99-year land leases are coming to an end.

“It is not about Kenyatta, this is a complex matter and that is why NLC was formed. The Jubilee government has settled squatters at the Waitiki farm in Likoni and several titles revoked in Lamu and land is being re-distributed equitably,” said Yahya, the principal partner in Saad Yahya and Associate a think tank group.

He advises county governments in Coast to come up with County Land Policies to complement the National Land Policy in dealing with the land question.

Proper strategy

Prof Halim Shauri, says the national government has not shown enthusiasm to deal with Agenda Four of the National Dialogue and Reconciliation process of 2008 on land.

“This is a historical and very emotive issue. Kenyatta said (land transfer) was willing seller willing buyer arrangement but it is a historical fact that post-independence governments dished community land to politically correct individuals. This shows that he did not have a solution to the problem,” says Shauri of Pwani University.

He believes the national government has not found a proper strategy to deal with the land question citing lack of political will. “Look at the time a key legislation like the Community Land Bill is taking in Parliament there is lack of political will to deal with this issue,” he says.

“Like former President Kibaki, Kenyatta is held captive by selfish interests of people who benefited from these injustices during the past regimes. Evictions are going on everywhere in Coast region despite Article 60 of the Constitution guaranteeing that land should be available to every Kenyan,” says Nicholas Mrima Wanyepe, the Executive Officer of Kaya Ecological and Culture Organisation.

More than 30,000 squatters in Kasauni live in fear of forceful eviction after the Land Commission wrote to the area Deputy County Commissioner Julius Kavita giving a go-a-head for the exercise.

Mr Wanyepe cites historical injustices that need to be addressed like in Taita Taveta County where 53 parcels of land were taken away from the community in 1928 to settle soldiers who returned from World War two, the 1947 excise of community land to establish Tsavo East and Tsavo West, the huge Sisal plantations and ranches owned by individuals. “The problem is that the same people we depend on to solve the problem are either the beneficiaries of close to those who instigated the problem,” he says.

But the president has reiterated that his administration has the answer to the land question in the region.

In January, the President, through State House spokesman, Manoah Esipisu said the Kenyatta family had donated 2,000 acres of land in Taita Taveta to settle squatters.

However, Opposition leaders at the Coast dismissed the President’s assertions and challenged him to first resettle hundreds of squatters on his family’s land in Taita Taveta.

Land and political experts at the Coast also term Uhuru’s promise to solve the land question at the Coast before next election “unrealistic owing to the complexity.”

“Mzee Kenyatta inherited much of this problem from the colonial government. Jubilee also began on a wrong footing as wrangles dogged the NLC. The Lands Cabinet Secretary was also fighting the NLC,” says Mwakimako.

He observes that the revocation of title deeds in Lamu and the settling of squatters on Waitiki farm has shown that Kenyatta was keen to resolve the land problems at the Coast.

“President Uhuru is a victim of his father’s (Jomo Kenyatta) and political father’s (Daniel Moi) legacies. He faces an uphill task to undo what happened during their rein,” says Kenya Land Alliance Coast Co-ordinator Nagib Shamsan.

He says the land problem requires immediate and long term solutions hence it was not possible for Jubilee to solve the matter during its first term in office.

Land conflicts remains the country’s hottest political issue and experts trace the problem back to pre-independence period and accuse post-independence governments of not solving it.

In 2013, Uhuru braved tirades from his rivals who accused him of being a beneficiary of successive governments’ omission or commission of historical land injustices.

“Land historical injustices did not start with the founding father, Mzee Kenyatta. They begun in 1902 after the colonial government put in place the Crown Lands Ordnance. But yes it is true that Mzee Kenyatta and Moi regime are accused of not doing enough to solve it,” says Mwakimako.

The experts recommend that the government should assist the landless at the Coast to establish land purchase co-operatives to enable them have a higher bargaining power with the landowners.

“At the Waitiki it is the squatters that have bought the land. Such arrangements can be made by organising the squatters to buy the land they are living on. Because most of them are willing to buy,” said Nguma Charo, the Chairman of Pwani Peace Youth Forum. The organisation deals with squatters at the Coast.