Why the idea of ancestral lands is so last century...

NAIROBI: There was some intriguing story from Mombasa this week, but then, strange things always happen at the Coast. It was on squatters who have been living on some private farm for nearly 20 years.

Apparently, there was some plan to buy out the farm, with the help of the Government for resettlement of some 120,000 squatters who illegally occupy the land.

Now, it appears there has been a change of heart; the Government has decided it won’t buy the land. Instead it wants the squatters to foot the bill.

COURT ORDERS

But their spokesman said they are staying put, and elaborated that they had no intention of buying the land. It was either going to be offered to them gratis, or they would keep living on it for free, he added, because it is their ancestral land.

The land owner, the story went on, has secured countless court orders approving squatters’ eviction, but to no avail.

The story also quoted a local politician, a known warmonger and recently ran afoul with the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, after she was accused of incitement. She was at it again, claiming the land in question must have been acquired through dubious means as it is too large.

This anecdote confirms the place of the rule of law in this land. For if ancestral land would be reason invoked by all and sundry, I wonder who would have the legitimacy to live anywhere in this wide world.

Certainly, most of us would have had no reason to be anywhere near the green city in the sun.