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Kenya: The Displaced Have a Case Too, State Must Listen to Them
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
10 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Cabral Pinto
Nairobi
My article of April 26, 2008, on the resettlement of the internally displaced as a true political test for the grand coalition government has received various comments, but none is as critical and important as that by a Kenyan distinguished professor, scholar, researcher and one particularly well published in political economy, especially land tenure in Central and Rift Valley provinces. It is therefore important to clarify the issues raised because the land question in Kenya is complex.
It is also clear that as journalists we have displayed dangerous intellectual laziness by dealing with the issue superficially and unwittingly supporting forces against land reform.
My article is said to have implied that wealthy Kikuyus were somehow responsible for the exodus of Kikuyu peasants to the Rift Valley to have the large estates in Central Province all to themselves.
I SINCERELY REGRET THE implication, for it was not my argument at all. It becomes important, therefore, to debunk the falsehood that poor Kikuyu peasants in the Rift Valley were moved there by wealthy Kikuyu landowners led by President Kenyatta after independence.
This falsehood is clearly the basis of arguments by forces that have been evicting the Kikuyu peasants from their land in the Rift Valley through murders, arson and other means. I have criticized the Kenyan elite in these columns before, but it is important that any such criticism is done on the basis of truth and not allegations or a mix-up of truths, half-truths and falsehoods.
Kenyans, and particularly journalists, who are keen to know the truth about how the poor Kikuyu peasants found themselves in the Rift Valley must read works by Apollo Njonjo, Sorenson, Kanogo, Cowen, Nottingham and Rosberg, Kitching, Furedi and Okoth-Ogendo among others to get the full picture of the origins of the Kikuyu squatters in the Rift Valley during the colonial era.
The Million Acre Scheme as a policy to resettle poor Kikuyus in the former White Highlands predates independence as, indeed, other policies implemented by the British in response to the Mau Mau war.
There were other resettlements during the Kenyatta era; some of them were government-led, while the others were market-based. Among the latter were through private land-buying companies such as Ndeffo and Kiambaa. Many politicians and journalists neither know nor care to make these critical distinctions in a complex land issue, and the failure to make such distinctions may hamper the work of the impeding truth, justice and reconciliation commission.
There are also untold stories on the resettlement of IDPs, among these are the peasant exchanges of land during the so-called ethnic clashes. Kalenjin peasants who owned land outside the Rift Valley exchanged their pieces for those in the Rift Valley owned by colleagues from other communities as they waited for the crisis to end.
At the Coast, although there was a post-election crisis in Mombasa and Tana River, some forces successfully contained the crisis in both places. In Central, since 1991 Kikuyu IDPs have been voluntarily resettled by some families. Some of the Kikuyu IDPs being voluntarily resettled have no memories of where in Central they came from. It is important to learn critical lessons from all these stories, as it is a sickening tragedy that they are not told and glorified.
There have been stories too about rich Kenyan landowners giving up land for resettlement. In Laikipia, we have heard stories of landowners allowing their poor neighbours to have short-term leases to the pieces the landowners are not using. These stories, too, need investigation, and it is important to gauge whether the rich landowners are becoming social-justice philanthropists or they are simply handing over land for purposes of either making profits or for political patronage. How ready are the landowners for meaningful land reform?
IT IS APPARENT THAT THE ISSUE OF IDPs resisting resettlement is not being addressed seriously. While the issue of physical security is being raised, it must be borne in mind the security of the IDPs' private property. Are we thinking seriously about how the displaced can dispose of their property at market rates if they do not want to live next to their neighbours whom they rightly see as their tormentors?
Is the state holding itself out as liable for not stopping the killings and failing to compensate the IDPs promptly and fully for their lost properties? Are we listening to the voices opposed to the resettlement? Are we not yet again pitting the poor against the poor without finding out some of the root cause of the land question?
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It is hoped that lobby groups and think tanks are also paying attention to these issues. It is gratifying that the Kenya Land Alliance, a leading NGO that works on land rights issues, and Development Policy and Management Forum, a think tank, are committed to and passionate about land. Let us hope that the work of scholars and activists will find patriotic synthesis for the benefit of this country.
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