[Miscellaneous]

Originally Posted by luoliability

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1963 independence, enter jomo kenyatta and gema land-buying companies

trouble is, we had a majimbo constitution at independence. The rise of a party-state in kenya: from “harambee!” to “nyayo!” that kanu “urged central control of all regions in an effort to forestall local majimbo legislation restricting land transfer to those born in the area, and to maintain the foothold of the party’s kikuyu supporters in the rift valley land market”.

Many settlers were returning to britain. Kenyatta and his cronies quickly formed the settlement transfer fund schemes (stfs) and asked the british for a loan to the kenyan government, to buy off land from colonial settlers returning to britain.

Good idea up to this point. Britain, having been reassured by kenyatta that those settlers still wishing to stay on in kenya would not have their land repossessed, advanced the money. This money was used to buy settler land which was officially sold into the kenyatta initiated settlement transfer fund schemes (stfs).

next, kenyatta began to give away and sell for peanuts, these government (stfs)-acquired, former colonial land parcels, to himself, his family and cronies around 1964 and 1965. This is the point when the rain started beating kenya. Kenyatta’s then vice president, jaramogi oginga odinga, cried foul and rejected these acts of wanton land grabbing.

the opportunity to choose nationalism and selflessness over greed and ethnic tendencies was lost. Rather than address this land issue once and for all, kenyatta opted to replace the settler colonialsist in land they had initially grabbed from natives. We have began harvesting the seeds of the mustard sown by kenyatta in the 1960s. It will not be sweet at all.

the seroneys and other nandi and kipsigis leaders immediately cried foul when kenyatta ensued in his land grabbing tendencies. So were many maasai and miji-kenda leaders like ronald ngala. Their cries were feeble and over run. Today and tomorrow, their descendants will demand justice and restitution in an exercise that threatens to tear apart kenya’s social fabric. who will shoulder the burden of the fruits enjoyed by kenyatta and his cronies, moi and his cronies, and kibaki and his latter day cronies? will it be the poor kenyan taxpayer taking the bill in form of blood, and more taxes?

going back,…. Down memory lane….. In the immediate post-independence era, the moment, the seroneys and ogingas started crying foul, and nothing was done, we entered a dangerous phase of our nation’s socio-political path. The political leadership of kenya began carving out into two distinct groups.

The pro-kenyatta land beneficiaries, sycophants and apologists where daniel moi, paul ngei and others trooped towards,….and another force resisting the greedy post-independence governance by kenyatta which was led by jaramogi oginga odinga, and included several former kadu operatives like ronald ngala, jean marie seroney, masinde muliro, martin shikuku and others.
kenya: who owns the land, blood and soil issue « kenya elections