Forget Owning Land or Forget Kenya

Grabbed Land in Mau Forest: This is the Land-Paradise most Kenyans envision owning, by hook, crook or murder. A dream that the meagre arable land in Kenya can never satisfy.

As David Throup rightly observed in the late eighties it was utterly impossible at that time for Moi (or anyone in his place for that matter) to redistribute land more equitably, i.e. reposses it from the Kikuyus primarily in the Riftvalley and give it to other ethnic sub-nationalities. The complexities were, then as is now, more intractable than they were at independence, and even then the issues that the astute Kenyatta had to grapple with were by no means child's play.

First, Kenyatta had to forestall a violent conflict amongst the Kikuyus themselves. There were basically two opposing forces. The first group was the incipient Kikuyu capitalists (the proto-capitalists and later the Kenyan petit bourgeois and now the capitalist elite)  who had been painstakingly building their economic base through fierce competition with the white settler capitalists and Asians (both expatriate communities felt threatened and did as much as they could to curtail the menacing but still formative Kikuyu bourgeoisie) . 

At the same time the Kikuyu proto-capitalists who were the bitter rivals of the colonial business establishment, closely collaborated with the very same settlers against other Kikuyus and Africans  when the exigencies of protecting mutual interests so demanded. Hence their disparaging attribution as the 'ngati' or 'homeguards' essentially colonialist stooges. Most in this group amongst the Kikuyu had been descendants of the Mbari founders and hence they were already elites amongst the Kikuyu. The members of this group were naturally few but immensely powerful and wealthy, they were also better educated.

Some Mau Mau were still lodged in the Forest and many were willing to go back to fight for land.

In direct opposition to them were the peasants, squatters and landless Kikuyu  who were the majority and the Kikuyu faction that gave rise to the Mau Mau uprsing. It must be remembered that the Mau Mau were as much against their proto-capitalist Kikuyu kinsmen as they were against the white settlers, to them they represented the same vice -- the capitalist disease of greed, further alienation from their stolen land and generators of Kikuyu woes, misery and poverty. More simply they were greedy traitors; yet the homeguard-capitalists were not expendable since they enjoyed legitimate support through the Mbari kinship system.

So Kenyatta (who was firmly rooted by blood, heritage, marriage, socialization and education in the camp of the fractious proto-capitalists) pretty much had no choice but to seek means to placate the interests of both Kikuyu factions, otherwise the sheer instability in his own homeland would tear to shreds his own authority and perhaps re-ignite the Mau Mau conflict -- leaving the entire country in dire straits.

When the money savvy and robust proto-capitalists on their own intiative began to take over the land in Central Kenya from white settlers who were better disposed towards them than the Mau Mau (the infuriated and departing settlers pretty much regarded all poor Kikuyu to be cultists and members of Mau Mau, therefore in retribution, they vengefully offered their holdings to the 'homeguard' clique at throw away prices) Kenyatta had little choice but to resettle the Mau Mau veterans, squatters and other landless Kikuyu in the expansive and nearby estates in Riftvalley.

As time went on this became more brazen and bizarre. Settler estates in the heartland of other ethnic subnationalities was rapaciously bought and redistributed to Kikuyus or came under Kikuyu ownership, to the eternal ire of the dispossessed communities. Again primarily in Riftvalley and the Coast provinces.

It was through this prism of an intricate balancing act amongst his own Kikuyu people and always anxious not to rock the boat, that Kenyatta then had to view other national issues. As long as other ethnic subnational interests (amongst the other tribes) did not affect  the delicate balance in the volatile Kikuyu bulwark his actions always took a positive national outlook. But when those interests threatened his wobbly and tenuous Kikuyu coalition, then his astute powers in realpolitik was used to thwart them, if possible, without risking too much politically or igniting unnecessary tension.

There were other complex problems regarding land at independence that Kenyatta was faced  with besides the Kikuyu paradox, and which he judiciously or injudiciously chose to skirt. For instance, even if he wanted equitable distribution of land amongst all the tribes, there were the unpalatable and mind-boggling perplexities of conflicting pre-colonial claims.

At independence the Luhya, the Nandi and the Maasai all had as much right and equal  claim to ownership of Uasin Gishu  i.e. Luhya, Maasai and Nandi all had reasonable grounds that Eldoret and all the surrounding agricultural land had always been theirs The Kipsigis and the Kisii had conflicting claims in a large swathe of land covering the western part of what is now Kericho county i.e. almost all of Bureti, parts of Belgut, Kericho and Bomet districts.

The Kipsigis, Maasai, Kisii and Kuria then as now had conflicting claims in what is Narok county and Transmara. The Luo had conflicting claims to those of the Kisii, Luhya and the Kipsigis on land situated at their mutual borders.The Akamba practically could claim half the Nyika plateau and half Nairobi. The Meru had conflicting claims to the Embu, Samburu and Borana while the converse is also true. The Mijikenda claimed all the land that had been taken over by settler estates and which is still in private hands.The Kikuyu had counterclaims to those of the Maasai and Tugen in Laikipia, Nakuru and Naivasha. Somali irredentists wanted a third of Kenya .

Coastal Arabs wanted their ten mile strip that had been leased from the Zanzibari sultan since 1887. The peripheral pastoralist communities in the North did not know or care in which country they were in; they did not claim, they simply knew that all the vast land that they traditionally grazed their herds was incontrovertibly theirs -- despite the fact other pastoralist groups had similar perspectives which were in sharp conflict with theirs.

Apart from these internal land problems, Uganda held claims up to Naivasha but more conservatively all of Western and all areas around the vicinity of Lake Victoria, including Kisumu (Kisumu and the surrounding land around Lake Victoria was transferred to Kenya in 1906 from Uganda). Sudan claimed the Alemi Triangle and Ethiopia claimed Oromo areas in Northern Kenya. Somalia simply let the Somalis in Kenya to do all the claiming and squabbling for them by funding the Shifta War.

It might be understandable that the last thing that Kenyatta wanted to delve into was pre-colonial rights and claims on land, it was a Pandora's box best left unopened -- especially in a young nation. So what did he do? He sorted out as best as he could the Kikuyu squatter/Mau Mau problem, which was immensely aided by the Million Acre project funded by the British Government, and then he let the colonial order and capitalist market system to do the rest.

This ensured that he himself and the Kikuyu capitalists would get the lion's share (they controlled the government's purse strings), while acting within the rule of law and the rest of the communities to suit themselves as best as they could within the post-independence order. It was far from equitable or even remotely in the overarching national interests but Kenyatta damned made sure it was all somehow legal. But can such flagrant inequity be legitimized by statutes enacted to safeguard blatant robbery? It is the people who give meaning to the law, not the other way round.

Former President Moi.

When Moi got into power, he hardly enjoyed the wherewithal that Kenyatta had in the latter stages of his rule. Due to a complex labyrinth of political, economic, ethnic, institutional and international problems, Moi's power was based on very flimsy grounds from the outset. In the beginning even the weather was against Moi, there were at least three major droughts in the first seven years of his rule. The famines in 1980 and 1984 were unprecedented in scale and administrative incompetence.

It is a small miracle that he even survived at all through the 23 years of his rule {Moi is known to have weathered at least three assassination plots -one by the Ng'wataniro (a fiercely anti-Moi Kikuyu outfit whose members mainly came from the volatile Nakuru, Naivasha, Laikipia area and wanted to opt Moi out the JM way),  one during the 1982 coup and finally another plotted assassination during a guard of honour in 1985 -- around 40 officers and regular soldiers were quietly dealt with}, perhaps a tribute to his own  political astuteness, realism and skill.

The land issue to him was even more a tool for political patronage and reward to his Kalenjin constituency than it was for Kenyatta. Unfortunately there was far much less of land and the Kikuyu's, unlike the white settlers and asian land speculators could not be so easily pressured, bought and bumped out.

So dishing out forest land, parastatal land and other public held land as well as the callous promise of reclamation of land occupied by the Kikuyu, became his avenue to reward and to win the support of his rather lukewarm and ambivalent Kalenjin constituency. This situation arose from the fact that Moi came from one of the more insignificant subtribes of the Kalenjin, quite apart from the fact that it was he himself (in the first place!) who struck a deal with Kenyatta in which he acquiesced and actively facilitated the occupation of Kalenjin land by Kikuyus .

It is hardly surprising that even the Tugen, Moi's own people found Moi incredulous -- he was in effect telling them that he will sell out the Kikuyus (to whom he had sold out the Kalenjin), so that the Kikuyu sell out will square his earlier Kalenjin sell out and thus make the Kalenjin all happy again. They took the goodies and still denied him their love and trust, something that always made Moi testy -- even now he does not warmly engage with the ingrate Kalenjins, he rather talks down to them. Were it not for the presidency it was the duplicitous Moi who would have been sold out; and left to politically hang.

The issue of land today is such that even if all the agricultural estates, large tracts of privately owned land and forest land were to be carved up and handed out to all disaffected Kenyans it would only be a short lasting panacea. Never mind that the immediate economic cost of such an endeavour would be devastating. Am not even mentioning the environment and the rest. It would take less than a generation before we end up right where we are, more poorer and with a much degraded agricultural potential.

What then will we do at that point? Will Kenyans miraculously expand the land? Or will they satisfy their land needs through slicing of non-existent forests, grabbing skyscrapers or  political dish outs of who knows what as they have been trained to expect since the 50s? It is ridiculous. Traditional land ownership should be looked upon as something of the past, infact we should anticipate land consolidation to create more landless people.

Sentiments about land, no matter how strong will not expand Kenya.This is the reality Kenyans have to grapple with urgently in order to move ahead. I am certain that the Asians of Kenya have no vast tracts of land that they are hoarding on the Indian subcontinent and that is why they are so dispassionate. Necessity has simply made them to change their perspectives on land not imaginary entitlement to millions of acres in India and Pakistan. They are happy and successful and many have been right here for more than a century,  buying and selling land with as much sentiment as  purchasing and selling loaves of bread.

So at the end of the day it is rather silly to keep exporting more Kikuyus into Kalenjin sensitive land (one of the reason why Ruto is being courteously courted by pro-Kenyatta forces even though the Kalenjin have historically done most of the land-based murdering and even stood out in the 2008 PEV). For how long can that tired political ruse be used anyway? Will all future generations of landless Kikuyu be migrated into the heartland of other tribes? When will the Luhyas, Kisiis, Pokomo, the Coastal people, the Somali, Luos also be exported into the heartland of other tribes?

Politicians should face the truth and tell their supporters that Land ownership is not a guarantee or even a desirable goal for everyone

The government should tell the Kikuyu IDPs, the Kalenjin forest evictees, all the landless people and Kenyans in general there is no more land to dish out and people should start getting used to being landless -- it is the inevitable future. Governments can't conjure up land or take the role of the creator and modify the land mass to satisfy the whims of their citizens. Instead Kenyans should think of owning homes and property in an urban setting. No matter how long the politicians will keep avoiding this issue there can only be one logical conclusion, so instead of penting up expectations and pressure based on fictitious land, they should come out now. If anyone wants free land they can migrate to Antarctica and each one of them can gleefully start his own clan-colony there.

Equally childish is daydreaming about owning all the land on which your great-great-great-grandfather used to graze on, it is pathetic and pitifully sub-adult. We are not in the 18th century and Kenya is not a collection of the bush trails that the Maasai, Kalenjin,  and the Akamba used to roam on. We can't all get all what we want all the time. For the record am . . . landless!

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I find David Throup's treatise so immensely fascinating and compelling, so much so that I have posted it below in it's entirety (It's fairly long, but only chapter in length) for those who might want to read all about the clan politics of the Kikuyu Mbari, Kenyatta's land calculations, the short-changing of the Luhya by Kenyatta, and the sell out of the Kalenjin by Moi. You can read about the family ties between Moi, Mudavadi and many other prominent families as well as the motives behind the JM and Mboya assassinations.

There is also the origins of the class war between the Kikuyu capitalists (the "homeguards") and the landless squatters ("Mau Mau") as well as the creation of the elites amongst the Kalenjin. Within the Kalenjin nation there is the ongoing struggle between the ruling-capitalist elites and the landless,  poor 'have-nots'. More astonishingly Throup lays bare the tribal calculations within the army. All these dynamics were captured by Throup's treatise in the late eighties which makes it a more interesting read particularly due to its attribute of being frozen in time.

M. Wycliff,

If you are sufficiently interested just scroll down to the post below (the previous post if you have only one post on your browser).