Tracking the History of Land Curse in Kenya
Introduction
The following piece by John Kamu on the Sunday Nation of 21 February 2016 gives good insights in tracing the trajectory of land grabbing in Kenya, one of the most perennial cancers that eats into Kenya very being with an existential threat. Here follows the write up.
Many
Kenyans have never heard about the Z-Plots — yet if anyone wants to investigate
the origins of land grabbing in Kenya, this is where they should start. The
Z-Plot scheme, as it was known in government records, was hatched about 50
years ago and it was to benefit the elite in the Jomo Kenyatta government with
some 100 acres and a colonial farm house; all for a song, or for free.
Initially,
the government was supposed to settle the landless on land purchased with loans
from the World Bank, Britain and other donors. But those charged with
implementing the scheme settled some landless — and settled themselves too! As
we now know from records, the political elite and their families became the
landless — the heist masters.
Z-Plot
scheme was not for the hoi polloi and all what was required of the political
elite was to identify a farmhouse and the land and apply to the minister of
Lands and Settlement for allocation. This explains why all the Kenyatta Cabinet
ministers and most senior civil servants own – or owned – 100 acres and a
farmhouse in various localities.
Whether
they paid for it or not is a different story, but land meant to settle the
landless ended up in the hands of well-oiled politicos. Getting such choice
land required ingenuity. President Kenyatta had in 1964 secretly ordered that
all colonial farm houses should be spared from allocation together with 100
acres. He got one for free in Nyandarua. With Kenyatta leading, the dash to
secure choice land became a full time job for government officials. The
original idea, according to some government documents, was to settle some
prominent people alongside poor farmers on the settlement schemes from whom
they would “learn” good agricultural practices.
When
former President Daniel arap Moi saw Gunson’s House in Perkera Scheme in Eldama
Ravine he knew that it had been set aside as a State Lodge. But still he wrote
to the Permanent Secretary for Lands and Settlement Peter Shiyukah saying he
wanted that house. Reason: “Most MPs and other prominent people have bought 100
acre plots with houses.” Moi’s letter, as it was practice on Z-Plots, was
handed over to Lands minister Jackson Angaine who instructed the Director of
Settlements, Maina Wanjigi, to check whether he can “demarcate 100 acres to
make the house more attractive”.
Choose the Plot
Actually,
Moi did not know how much land there was around Gunson’s House and said as
much: “I do not know how many acres are there. All I know is that the value of
the land surrounding this house is very poor and I would like to buy it so that
I can keep a few cattle on it.” The onus to identify the land one wanted fell
on the political elite and not the ministry. How do we know this? When
assistant minister for Finance, Tom Okello-Odongo, wrote to the ministry asking
for 100 acres in Muhoroni or Koru, Mr Angaine wrote a small note to Mr Wanjigi
saying: “Ask Mr Okello-Odongo to indicate the plot he wants me to allocate
him.” That is all that was required of him. The Director of Settlements
(Wanjigi) actually suggested that Mr Okello-Odongo “would have to go and visit
the area and choose the plot he requires. We dare not do it for him,” he told
Mr Angaine. Also, seniority mattered. If you identified some land somewhere and
a Cabinet minister got interested, you had to forego your claim. Again, how do
we know this?
When
Dr Gikonyo Kiano identified his claim in Dundori, it was realised that some
other officials had identified the same plot and applied. Mr Angaine, as usual,
intervened in a letter dated May 12, 1965: “The house and 100 acres must be
given to Dr Kiano.” The Director of Settlements then wrote to the local
agricultural officer, a Mr Winter, “to prepare the documents in favour of Dr
Kiano for the particular house and 100 acres referred to and ignore the
necessity of having to go through the selection committee for this house … In
future when ministerial directions have been given on these 100 acre plots,
accept such directives as over-riding…”
To
get such choice plots and houses, one had to at times book an appointment with
Mr Angaine to make sure that you got what you wanted. Even individuals
who were publicly critical of the settlement procedures lined up in Angaine’s
office soliciting favours. One of these was Martin Shikuku who, on May 18,
1965, visited Mr Angaine seeking to get his 100 acres in Kiminini Scheme,
Kitale, plus Mr Fraser’s house. Mr Angaine not only approved Mr Shikuku’s
request but he also received a “thank you” letter from the Butere MP. “I wish
to thank you for allocating Fraser’s house to me in the presence of the
Director of Settlements, Mr Maina Wanjigi.” That way, he knew that no one
else would make a claim on the same.
On
record, settlement officers in the field had been told that they would vet
applicants. It was a big lie. Details on how applicants would be vetted were
left vague giving officials in Nairobi a chance to vex power and authority on
junior settlement officers who were in the field. The Cabinet had deliberately
not approved a procedure to be used in disposing of the 100 acre Z-Plots and
for a reason. This was a clandestine scheme and had not been approved under the
World Bank-funded million-acre scheme, which was to purchase white-owned land
and allocate it to the landless.
Purchase Own Land
In
the million-acre scheme, Cabinet ministers and senior government officials
would hardly pass for landless Kenyans since they had means to purchase their
own land. Because of the rush, and lack of proper records on who got what, some
senior government figures, cunning like foxes, applied for several of the Z
plots. S.O Josiah, who later became an envoy, was one of them. He not only
applied and got approval for one 100-acre plot and Mr R. G. MacAdam’s house in
Kiminini in June, 1965 but also got an 800-acre farm in Trans Nzoia at the same
time.
This
allocation, and many such others, baffled settlement officers in the field who
naively thought it was a mistake. “I do not think that the minister was aware
of this fact (that Mr Josiah owned an 800 acre farm) when he approved (his)
application. Perhaps it would be wise to bring this matter to his attention,”
wrote P.D Abrams, a senior agricultural officer in a note to the Director of
Settlements.
The
official excuse to award the elite 100 acres was that they were enticing them
to purchase the colonial farm houses. Actually, Mr Angaine wrote to the
Director of Settlements saying: “We must get rid of all these houses as quickly
as possible before they get rotten and become valueless. I don’t mind if anyone
comes forward with his money and buys all these houses. I am only interested in
seeing [that] all these houses are disposed off.”
Since
those who had been settled under the million-acre scheme were to pay for the
land in instalments, the Z-Plot scandal only emerged when it turned out that
the main defaulters were the elite. It is only after a team of World Bank and
Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) officials had visited the schemes
and raised questions that officials at the ministry started panicking. July 29,
1965: The director of settlements asked his seniors to stop further allocation
of Z Plots because they appeared “to be inconsistent” with the financial
agreements reached between Kenya and the lenders.
Cleared with Lenders
“Until
this matter is cleared with the lenders, I am afraid we have got to discontinue
any more approvals for 100-acre plots,” he wrote. So scandalous was the Z-Plot
scheme that the British government appointed a commission in July 1966 to
investigate what was happening. The commission was led by B. Van Arkadie, a
Yale University professor who was also an adviser to the British ministry of
overseas development. He reported: “What we saw was discouraging. A striking
feature of these Z Plots was the fact that many of their owners were not living
on them or developing them in any way.”
Arkadie
was also given a list of 118 owners of Z plots and he reported that “a cursory
glance over the names shows that many of the new plots are owned by ministers,
members of parliament, ambassadors, permanent secretaries, provincial
commissioners, civil servants and prominent national personalities.”
The
commission also said that failure to develop these plots was setting a bad
example to the scheme and also the owners were the single largest group of loan
defaulters. “Loan repayment on this group of farms is worse than on any other
type of settlement plot, the complete opposite of what was reasonable to
expect,” said the report. And if these senior government officials were to be
good examples to the farmers who had been settled around them, they became bad
ones, refused to join the local co-operative societies and instead set limited
companies to manage their farms making it “difficult” for the settlement
officers to deal with them or to get their loan arrears.
Today,
a quick glance at the Z-Plot files shows that by 1966 some 66 personalities had
not been billed at all in the Z Plots meaning they had received the land for
free. It also showed that 28 personalities had only been billed once for
Sh82,452 but only Sh 1,232 had been paid. A Settlement Fund Trustees meeting
that was held in September 1965 had actually suggested that an attachment
should be sought on the salaries of the MPs who had defaulted but this was not
followed.
Foreign Government
Actually,
the Arkadie Mission, as it was known, said they saw no “intrinsic reason why
the houses should be sold together with 100 acres of land” and complained that
land that could have accommodated more than 1,000 families had ended up with
the “privileged”. This did not go down well in the government.
President
Kenyatta was angry that the British government was interfering with the
Z-Plots. When the Cabinet finally deliberated on the issue, official minutes
say that Kenyatta “strongly objected to the fact that the British Government,
through its High Commission, had interfered” in the sale of 100-acre farms. During
the Cabinet meeting of April 25, 1967, the minutes indicate, Kenyatta said that
the Kenya Government “could not entertain any directives from the British
Government or any other foreign government”.
He
ordered that the sale of 100-acre farms should be resumed and that the Treasury
“should guarantee the funds involved”. He also directed that the agreement with
the British government on the settlement fund repayments should be reviewed. By
then a total of 296 plots had been excised and it was also not clear if the
World Bank would accept the 100-acre plots in their low-density schemes to be
funded through their loan.
As
the British High Commissioner, Bruce Greatbach, continued to press for answers,
nobody was willing to give any. He then lost his cool. “We are being pressed by
the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Development for this
information,” he wrote in one of the letters. By that time only a few
allocations had not been done and quietly the government continued to give
100-acre plots to those close to power.
Finally,
a list containing only 51 names of Z-Plot owners was sent to the High
Commission, although the ministry had more than 200 names. It is not clear why
the ministry was reluctant to send the full list. London did not tire and
demanded the entire list. Cornered, the Lands minister prepared a Cabinet paper
asking Treasury to bear the cost of the Z-Plots. This meant taxpayer money
would be used to fund the take-over of land by a select few. When that was
done, nobody questioned the Z-Plots again.
Tracking the History of Land Curse in Kenya
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
February 22, 2016
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