This snow white business is essentially dark as a tomb

From the picture he looks diminutive. Of course, looks can be deceiving. But if Maina Chege lacks the height, he is more than generously compensated in eloquence.

Hear him: "Pure, open, transparent deal and white as cotton," is how he describes the deal that he brokered for City Hall through his Naen Rech Ltd.

"There is no scandal here," Chege adds. "The only scandal came when lawyers denied me my sweat and took away my Sh173 million profit."

"Just as other companies have to make profit to pay their employees and shareholders, so does Naen Rech Ltd."

I don’t think anyone can put it better than that. Chege’s company, which offered Sh24 million piece of land to City Hall at Sh283 million was doing a perfect job for itself and its owners.

And that’s the way it should be. Why, as Agriculture minister William Ruto would put it, land is not contraband, and can be transacted on willing seller willing buyer basis.

Easy to excavate

City Hall is not complaining, which presupposes the land procured was good value for money, even though the terrain is a rocky patch not easy to excavate.

For those who have forgotten, the land was to be used as a cemetery because Langata has been filled up for ages, and now Kenyans are piling dead upon dead.

Chege is incensed by the noise being generated about the meagre profit he made from the sale. "What I was left with was peanuts," he says of his Sh9 million profit, "It is even shameful to mention the amount."

Indeed, if many of us were in Chege’s shoes and received such a desultory sum after such a hard task, scouring the length and breadth of the country searching for land befitting a cemetery, then suicide would be a viable option.

At least would he have the last laugh by having the Nairobi City Council dig through rock to prepare his final resting place.

But Chege should find it solace from the manner the "profits" were shared out.

Part of the deal

One gentleman was offered a healthy amount just by running errands.

Well, one might say that was no mean task, considering getting stamps in the right places (and a falsified valuation) was a critical part of the deal.

I’m re-reading Dambudzo Marechera’s Cemetery of Mind just to understand this story better.

The departed Zimbabwean poet’s collection might convey some succinct wisdom that has eluded those contesting the land deal.

Indeed, for us to care about dead, when we don’t care for the living, is one of the contradictions that define us.

Which is why we should march in the streets and push for Chege’s full compensation of Sh173 million. Or it to recover Sh9 million?

Remember, snow-white deals shouldn’t stink to high heavens.