I am in mourning. And I am unhappy. It's to do with elders. Two of them.

Habel Nyamu just died. I never met the man. But I'm told he did great things in our public service and electoral commission.

Elder Nyamu had great and positive influence on me. He contributed lots of knowledge through this column. Through his writing, Nyamu taught and influenced many. He wrote on diverse topical issues of his day. Nyamu's contributions grew society. He has left me "orphaned" and I will mourn for long.

I am unhappy with another elder. And when he talks, he influences others. Yet you know, in our culture, elders are supposed to be revered. But to maintain such respect, elders must never be associated with mischief, lest they get ignored.

Much as I have learnt to respect and even admire retired President Daniel Moi, I think he occasionally veers off. At such times, Moi must be ignored. He however remains an elder of unparalleled achievements, given his unique ascent from grass to grace.

Moi is angry about the way Mau has been handled. He has pointed out that outsiders should keep off since the Rift Valley has elders who should be left to resolve the Mau issue.

In similar jest, he was recently decrying that Kenya's national land policy has been driven by the civil society, a thing he reckons should be left to elected leaders.

With due respect to elder Moi, Kenya isn't a best practice nation in land management. That's why we now have diminishing forest cover, food insecurity, water and power shortages. We have inequitable distribution, and land related inter-communal conflicts too.

Yet, much as the genesis to this has roots in the colonial governance, Moi may not escape the blame. Whereas he may have acted within his executive and constitutional mandate in sanctioning the excesses of the Mau, he did little to bequeath Kenya equitable distribution and sustainable land management.

And quite a number of the leaders opposed to land reforms are also in complicity. They should leave Kenyans to seek solutions to the land question within the realities of our day.

It's difficult to dissociate utterances by Moi and some Rift Valley leaders from their wider partisan interests in the Mau. See, the land policy proposes to establish institutions to repossess grabbed public land. Quite a lot in the Mau falls within this category. By implication therefore, such a proposal, and hence the land policy, must attract their ire.

And again, did Moi forget that the Lands ministry has been central to driving the policy and that the Cabinet, Kenya's highest executive organ, gave sanction?

Did he also forget that the land policy is headed to Parliament where people's representatives will have discretion to discuss? Or would he rather that parliamentarians, without the pertinent professional capacity and time for details, were left to produce the raw drafts? No, Moi is wrong on this one and must be accordingly ignored. The voluble complicit Rift Valley clique must be ignored too.

And elder Moi and his ilk who sulk whenever solutions to the land question are sought must understand that time is running out for Kenya on this matter. The lie fed to Kenyans at independence that they would collectively enjoy the gains of self-rule can no longer hold. The ignored land question has sired bad seed.

The 2007 post-election violence acts as good reminder. We either must deal with this proactively and in a structured manner now or leave it to the chaos of a frustrated nation later.

A colleague recently captured it well saying we must redress the prevailing situation where "too many Kenyans can't sleep because they are poor and hungry while the few rich can't equally find sleep, worried that the poor are awake". This is social dynamite that must be diffused through land reform proposals.

But Kenya must not go the Zimbabwe land seizure route. Kenya must also not walk the nationalisation routes earlier taken by many States in North Africa. We want a well managed national process.

Prof Michael Chege recently argued that in 20 years, many African states may not exist, thanks to their self-destruct tendencies. He included Kenya.

Mr Mwathane is a consultant in private practice.