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Kenya: Land Reforms Needed to End Mt Elgon Crisis
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
OPINION
19 March 2008
Posted to the web 19 March 2008
Emmanuel Wetang'ula
A military operation is currently under way to deal with the Mt Elgon crisis, which has been a seething hotbed of social unrest and cyclical civil strife. For sometime the government had either ignored or did not know what action it should take to quell the simmering clashes in the area.
The most interesting phenomenon of the crisis is the involvement of an armed militia group, the so called Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF). Just as the name of the terror group suggests, the dispute in the region is centred on land and its related interests. In view of this fact, is the full scale military operation bound to yield any results?
The answer is yes and no. The operation may serve to restore security in the area while the underlying cause of the crisis will be left unresolved. The solution is to put in place comprehensive land reforms not only in Mt Elgon, but the entire country in general. There is no doubt that the existing regime of land law is waiting to explode.
SLDF, as the name suggests, and other terror gangs across the country have risen to fill in a vacuum occasioned by the manifest weakness of the government to police certain areas and exclusion by the existing legal regime. In the slums, terror gangs like Mungiki were, before they were tamed, responsible for the provision of services such as water, and electricity. They still demand fees for security.
In other areas the sanctity of private property is not guaranteed by the State. This is a sacrosanct duty of the government that has been abdicated to the gangs, which police the immediate society and in return levy a charge on them.
The failure of the government over time to solve property-related disputes and the weakness manifested by the judicial system is responsible for the replication of the vigilante groups and other self help mechanisms that are now mutating into militias and other militarised entities to spread terror and mayhem.
A property regime where the ownership and use is guaranteed by the state and which allows and supports the existence of multiple interests without necessary clashing is the proper catalyst for economic growth.
There is urgent need to restore security in the areas experiencing strife but the long term solution is the urgent reform of the property regime.
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Mr Wetang'ula is a Advocate of the High Court.
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