Casper Waithaka
6 September 2008
Nairobi — One April morning in 2005, angry shareholders stormed the offices of Embakasi Ranching Company in Ruai.
According to police documents, a fight broke out during which office windows were shattered and money went missing.
The secretary was assaulted. Following the scuffle, four shareholders were arrested and charged with robbery and assault.
But according to James Banga, one of the leaders of the protesting shareholders, none of the crimes for which the four were arrested and charged were committed.
The protesters, he argues, were peaceful in voicing opposition to alleged confiscation and fraudulent resale of their plots.
They had no choice, he argues, since the company had refused to hold annual meetings. He claims that company officials colluded with police officers to file false charges against him and three others.
"We don't care about what will happen to our lives," an agitated Mr Banga told the Sunday Nation, three years later. "We want future generations to know that there were people who fought and died for this land."
There are varying accounts of the confrontation. A journalist says she witnessed a small scuffle but saw neither damaged property nor anyone being assaulted.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe has dismissed the claim that officers falsified charges against the four shareholders, saying police do not normally intervene in land disputes.
Whatever happened on that April morning, the battle was part of a protracted war between many Ruai residents and the Embakasi Ranching Company.
To this day, shareholders accuse the company of reallocating plots without the consent of the original allottees.
As the situation in Ruai unfolds, the government is taking steps to address the country's land dilemma. If these attempts succeed, Kenyans could be spared the suffering and challenges that people like Mr Banga have struggled with but failed to resolve.
Perhaps the most significant step taken by the government has been the draft National Land Policy. On August 17, Lands minister James Orengo said the draft was ready for submission to the Cabinet and lawmakers for review.
According to Dorothy Angote, the permanent secretary at the ministry, "land issues will be a thing of the past once the draft Land Policy becomes law".
The policy, she explained, "will be the only solution to issues such as those affecting land buying companies such as the Embakasi Ranching Company that are embroiled in scandals and politics".
Set of laws
Professor Okoth Ogendo of the University of Nairobi echoes these sentiments. He says that by consolidating current regulations into a simple but comprehensive set of laws, the Land Policy will succeed where the Ndung'u report failed.
The report, Prof Ogendo contends, did not have the legal teeth necessary to fundamentally change a broken system.
"The Ndung'u report was not sufficient because you need to change the law before you implement the recommendations," he explains.
"What the National Land Policy does is that once it gets approved, the laws will have to be changed."
Other experts are more cautious, warning that additional steps must be taken. Professor Karuti Kanyinga, a researcher at the University of Nairobi, thinks the Land Policy framework should be accompanied by comprehensive constitutional reform.
"Land issues are tied to issues of the Constitution and issues of political power," he says. "If that is the case, it is impossible to implement land reforms unless the country gets a new Constitution."
Computerisation of land records is another step that has been suggested recently. The same week that Mr Orengo announced the completion of the draft Land Policy, Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited the Lands ministry and criticised its archaic system of record storage.
The PM called for the adoption of a digital filing system to improve efficiency and fight rampant corruption.
While supporting the suggestion, Prof Kanyinga argues that the move should be just a first step towards efficient and transparent transactions at the ministry.
"Computerisation is a means to an end," he says. "It cannot stop someone from committing a crime or grabbing land."
Allegations denied
Responding to concerns raised by shareholders, the Embakasi Ranching Company has denied the accusations made against it.
A property manager at the company's Ruai office, Daniel Kimani, claims that every shareholder has received his or her proper share of land.
Claiming that the company has a membership of 13,500 or more, he says the "chorus of troublemakers should not be acknowledged".
He also insists that while some mistakes are inevitable, the company has never deliberately taken property away from its rightful shareholders.
"I don't steal plots and neither does the company," says Raphael Thimba, another representative.
Responding to charges that the company has failed to convene annual general meetings, Mr Thimba blames shareholders for being uncooperative. "They went to court to prevent the AGM from being held," he claims.
James Karanja, a director, calls Embakasi Ranching Company "the best and most organised land company in Kenya."
He says the arguments made by the angry shareholders are baseless.
"Those who bring these complaints are people who are not content with what they have been given," he says. In short, he says, there is no land problem in Ruai.
Fiercely passionate
But for the shareholders who claim to have lost their plots due to fraud, the suffering is too much to bear.
Mr Banga, who is leading the struggle for the protesting shareholders, says the problem is not just in his head.
The same police documents that accused him of raiding the company's offices, stealing money and assaulting the secretary in April 2005 state that his actions "are indicative of psychological complications that require medical attention".
The documents, signed by Police Commissioner Hussein Ali, are a source of great anger for Mr Banga.
"The commissioner himself says I am not of sound mind," fumes Mr Banga. "How can he say that? He has never even met me."
Mr Banga sighs. He has spent years clashing with the Embakasi Ranching Company, and he knows it could be years before the land problem in Ruai is resolved.
He vows to carry on with the struggle for long as he lives. There is no evidence that Mr Banga suffers from mental problems.
But his passionate pursuit of what he believes are his rights and those of fellow shareholders may be driving the land company crazy.
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