We must face the root cause of Kenya’s problems or all will be lost

Today we will address an issue that no writer has dared deal with squarely in Kenya since independence. Yet it is the root cause of most of our current problems in the country.

It is the sort of issue which when people mention, often yields dis-interested yawns, especially from the younger generation of Kenyans.

I beg you to be patient and hear me out. This is very important.

This issue is the issue of land. And we cannot start discussing this issue unless we start from the beginning. My apologies to those who have put the founding father of the nation on a similar pedestal as their gods. For Kenya to be saved, we must face the truth.

The founding father and first President of Kenya Mzee Jomo Kenyatta did not accumulate companies and businesses during his 15 year reign. He accumulated land. Vast tracts of it. His love for land, nay greed, would sometimes slip out during his speeches where he would talk;k about “ardhi yenye rotuba” or fertile land.

Ironical because so many Mau Mau fighters of whom Kenyatta was accused of being a leader of (and which he vehemently denied) died fighting for this land which had been taken over by the Mzungu (white man).

Yes, there was really no such thing as fighting for independence in Kenya. The fight was for land. As we shall see in our soon to be launched blog on political assassinations in Kenya, Kenya’s independence was gained more from dialogue than violence through heroes like Tom Mboya. We shall also see in the same blog that this issue of grabbed land, led by President Kenyatta, was the main reason why JM Kariuki died the horrible death he did, having his testicles cut off, probably when he was still alive, and stuffed into his mouth.

But I digress again.

I say it is ironical because many Kenyans lives were lost because the white settlers had taken over that land. Only for more ruthless Black settlers to take over the same land at independence.

The Kenyatta family recently donated 4,000 acres of land at the Coast to squatters. I leave you to judge the accuracy of the English language in that statement. In my book, the family gave back the land.

Land is such a sensitive issue in Kenya today that when the grand old man Kenyatta passed on and there appeared to be a succession crisis, the major issue was really land. The rich and powerful people who run Kenya wanted to be assured that all would be well with their ill gotten wealth with the new President. That is precisely why Moi came in with “Nitafuata Nyayo” (I will follow in the foot steps). Meaning that he would follow in the foot steps of his predecessor. It was to appease the rich and mighty of Kenya.

Today these families live in luxury in up market estates of Nairobi where their dogs eat better than many Kenyans working very hard trying to make ends but deeply disadvantaged by many government decisions taken to benefit the rich and powerful.

So many prominent Kenyans have been educated from this ill-gotten wealth from grabbed land. Land that was taken away from the people of Kenya.

And that is precisely how the culture of seeking political office to make money started. It started from the top. And that is the reason why a Parliamentary candidate is prepared to spend 30 million shillings in a campaign to win a parliamentary seat and yet his take home salary within his 5 years in office will only just about reach that amount. When you take into account inflation and other factors actually he will end up taking home less (see an earlier entry in this blog from a reader).

We can never hope to win the fight against corruption until we address this root origin.

And how do we do it?

The next government should have a truth and reconciliation commission set up where all these crimes against the people should be tabled. The perpetrators or their descendants should be forgiven. (There is really no way you can prosecute all of them). Only then can start again and move on to a new culture where people will never again seek political office to gain wealth or worse still to protect their wealth. What wealth is that that cannot be protected by the constitution?

More later.

But my apologies to all those numerous Kenyans, many of them even reading this, who were educated using this “blood money” from cash obtained from land Kenyans died fighting for. The descendants of these guys can also still be seen at Nairobi’s hottest night spots having the time of their lives splashing around money. Try the Carnivore on any Friday or Saturday night.

To redeem themselves the only thing they can do is join other Kenyans to push for political change so that we can change this thing. If not for ourselves for the sake of future generations.


Bill was quickly defeated, now you understand why
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Coincidentally even as the Kenyatta family was donating land at the Coast, a motion in parliament calling for the government to put a ceiling on the amount of land that an individual can own was shot down.

Lands Minister Amos Kimunya explained that Kenya was not a socialist country. In his book it is only in socialist countries that a ceiling can be put on the amount of land owned. (Or was he just repeating what his boss had told him?)

Yet the bill was a brilliant way of trying to right the wrongs done against the people of Kenya without raffling too many feathers. Or was it?