The 1200 acres of Twiga Farm lie in the
heart of Kenya in Kiambu County, northeast of Nairobi. The area, with
its green hills and fertile fields, first attracted land grabbers in
the form of white settlers during the colonial regime. The Kikuyu,
who had lived and cultivated these lands for centuries were forcibly
reduced to being workers on the white farms. The British established
a property registration system that individualized and commercialized
land - contradictory to the Kikuyu tradition of sharing and valuing
land. Most Africans had no access to or representation in this
system, and so no means to protect their land. The legacy of this
system is still being felt in many of the disputes over land seen
since independence.
In 1963, the year of independence, the Kenyan
government took a loan from the British government to buy back their
land from the colonialist. By then Kenya was well set on its
capitalist path and the largest chunks of land went to the new Kenyan
political elite, who had the resources and power to buy it. It is no
coincidence that the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the
first president Jomo Kenyatta - himself a Kikuyu - is believed to own
the largest parcels Kenya's privately held land today. Other Kikuyu,
who were the largest group that were dispossessed, were relocated to
other areas of the country. This seemed to work until 1992, when the
end of the Cold War prompted the spread of neo-liberal democracy
through an influx of conditional aid money combined with national
demand for democracy.
In the first multiparty election since 1964,
the political elite fomented issues over land to rally support along
ethnic lines. The results were instances of Post- Election Violence
since 1992 with the worst happening in 2007/2008. The clashes,
however, produced Internally Displaced People, who fled their lands
and the mismanagement in resettling them or rather in addressing the
malfunction and injustice of the land tenure system caused further
tension. Lastly, the era of investment has fully set root in Kenya,
causing legal and illegal evictions, as land becomes lucrative to
national and international elites to extract resources and other
investment projects. Yet, citizens have been convinced to believe
that land issues are a matter of scarcity and rivalries between
communities, rather than as a result of land grab by national and
foreign elites, companies or as part of skewed 'development schemes'.
The case of Twiga Farm can be understood against this background.
After Kenya got its independence, the British settler who 'owned' the
land in the colonial system, gave it back to the people who had
worked for him instead of paying out their retirement funds. The
people of Twiga divided the land among them, built a school and a
dispensary, and made a little town. The farm was even allocated a
voting station since 1964- a sign that it was recognized as a
legitimate community. However, Twiga Farm residents were never issued
with modern title deeds. This was not unusual at the time and indeed
is the case for many communities, especially those whose land was not
seized under colonialism as it was a long way from the capital city,
or not particularly fertile.
It is especially these communities that
are in danger of land grabs today, as new technology (e.g. in oil
exploration) has made their lands lucrative for investment. The
thousands of acres fertile land on Twiga Farm worth billions of
Kenyan Shillings (millions of dollars) were bound to attract the
interest of other forces.
In 2004, the company Mboi Kamiti claimed
ownership over the land. The police threatened residents with
eviction, but they responded by taking the case to court and the
chief magistrate ruled in their favour declaring the residents as
legal owners by right of adverse occupation. The company, however,
did not give up. They went back to court in 2012, ready to dispute
the original ruling, but their connections in political ranks seemed
to have spared them the bothersome process. On December 20 2012
residents of Kiambu were surprised by bullets flying over their heads
and bulldozers demolishing their houses. Eyewitnesses report planes
flying over the maize fields, spraying bullets. Four people were shot
that day and close to 4000 families displaced. The Provincial
Commissioner, the local mayor and police officials at scene accused
the residents of having illegally built on the land to justify the
evictions. Within 6 hours of the eviction, the police themselves
built a police station out of trailers and iron tents on the
property. Many of the displaced people were elderly; people who have
been born on the land and cultivated it their whole lives. In the
course of a single day, they and their families were ejected, and
robbed of shelter and livelihood. Some were forced to set up camps by
the roadside, and are still there today.
In a global neo-liberal framework that
demands pro-corporation, pro-profit development lead by
investments, they are only one example of the massive land grabs and
evictions taking place in Kenya and in Africa. The collusion of
local, national and international money and power is more and more
legalizing the disowning of people of their lands in the name of
economic growth, development or investment.
In a global neo-liberal framework that demands pro- corporation, pro-
profit development lead by investments, they are only one example of the
massive land grabs and evictions taking place in Kenya and in Africa.
The collusion of local, national and international money and power is
more and more legalizing the disowning of people of their lands in the
name of economic growth, development or investment. It is a powerful
partnership to stand up against. - See more at:
http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24039#sthash.ofj3wdGA.dpuf
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