Business Daily (Nairobi)
24 April 2008
editorial
The masochistic belligerence exhibited by some of the Rift Valley MPs over the return of people evicted from their farms is not only troubling, but sadistic.
What fun do these honourable MPs find in women and children staying in muddy camps unable to till their land or eke out a living? A dangerous precedent is being set and it is time we got back to our senses lest we open a Pandora's box.
We have said here before that these women and children were victims of land injustices committed during the British colonial rule and later on during the Kenyatta and Moi regimes.
These issues were discussed at the Lancaster House conference and sidestepped. Finally, it was agreed that land would be given on a willing-buyer willing seller and the Bretton Woods institutions decided to finance the scheme.
It is true that there was little transparency in the settlement of landless, but that cannot be sorted out by violently kicking out people out of land they bought or inherited from their parents.
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga must say no to dictations from these MPs and should forge on with the re-settlements and should not allow scaring of people out of their people.
A few issues are emerging that need to be addressed. Some politicians want to use the internally displaced to win political mileage and positions and to settle scores over the distribution of Cabinet positions.
Secondly, the sanctity of the title deed is being questioned and some provisions in our constitution are under attack.
Third, we are not only compromising the rule of law, but putting the future of this country as a nation of more than 43 communities on deathbed by allowing arsonists to have the final laugh. There are guidelines and statutes in our laws on how one can lose his property and violence, arson, and intimidation is not one of them.
If we allow mobsters who evicted people to take over property then we will be starting a retrogressive culture and a cycle of evictions that will snowball into civil strife.
That is why we must warn the MPs to stay off the resettlement path. Right to property cannot be negotiated. In our quest for justice our leaders should not bend backwards but must exhibit maturity, leadership and brotherhood.
We reiterate here that the right to property, as guaranteed in our constitution, should not be quashed or compromised in the name of addressing historical injustices.
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