State advised to control land use, ownership

By Job Weru

Leaders in Laikipia have called for streamlining of land use and management to ensure the county and national governments benefit from revenue drawn from ranches.

The leaders regretted that despite the ranchers, who are mostly of foreign origin, occupying one million acres, the investors do not pay taxes and other requisite fees to the government.

Speaking during a courtesy call by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Land on Laikipia Deputy Governor Josephat Gitonga, the leaders said more than half of Laikipia is owned by the large scale farmers.

“It is regrettable that tourists visit these farms, but the county and the national government do not earn any revenue,” said Gitonga.

Gitonga, and Mukogodo West Ward Representative Paul Lebeneiyo, also lamented absentee landlords, an issue they said increases conflict among pastoralist communities.

Foreign investors

“Herders invade these lands and in most cases, whenever they go back to their areas, they steal our cattle,” said Lebeneiyo.

The leaders also expressed concern that availability of unmanned lands has also led to rising cases of conflict with the owners who sell the land to foreign investors.

Priority to locals

The leaders regretted that most land owners in Laikipia have been selling their lands to white farmers who have been escaping from Zimbabwe.

Laikipia North MP Mathew Lempurkel and Mukogodo East ward representative Paul Leshuel observed that the government should compel land owners to give priority to locals whenever they intend to sell land.

The deputy governor added that the exodus of foreigners to Laikipia has also caused a hike in land prices over the last four years.

The committee’s chairman, Mburi Muiru, said his team would before October table a Bill in Parliament that will streamline evictions in the country.

“We want them to be human-friendly, and not as it happened in Naivasha,” he said.

The team will today tour Lekiji Village, where the High Court ordered the eviction of an estimated 3,000 people living on about 1,000 acres of land.