The three main factors that have contributed into making our country such a divided society of land owners on one hand and the landless on the other are mainly the repressive Provincial Administration, the colonial land and agricultural policies that have been supported by successive post independence regimes to perpetuate bad governance and poverty. Whoever manages to address the the three, whenever that will be, will have succeeded in taking this country to the Biblical Canaan.
The colonial government administration in Kenya was built on the premise of taking away arable land from the Africans and giving it out to the new white settlers to establish large scale farms and ranches. This is the genesis of the landowners versus the landless classes that has refused to go away. To prop up this new set up, The Provincial Administration was introduced and given immense powers through the Chiefs Authority Act to ensure that able bodied Africans were availed to work the farms. The introduction of the Poll and Hut tax was also meant to compel the Africans to work in slave conditions in return of a pittance wage that went into fulfilling their "obligation" to the Crown.
During the Mau Mau rebellion, the Africans were rounded up and set up in camps and the little land and livestock confiscated from them and given to loyalists including the members of the provincial administration and their relatives.The Swynnerton Plan of 1954 ensured that a new class of land owners was created even as more Africans were dispossessed of their land. At the time of independence, we had a great opportunity to remedy the situation but the new greedy and corrupt political class could not let the opportunity pass by without making a killing.
When it became clear that we were to gain independence, a few white farmers panicked and wanted to sell their farms so as to settle elsewhere. Through what was known as the Million Acre Scheme, farmland was bought from departing farmers through a loan from the British Government and the World Bank so as to resettle the landless but this was abused by the new administration by allocating a large portion to the politicians, their relatives, provincial administrators and other government officials. So the problem escalated further and increased resentment, poverty and hopelessness on the masses of the landless. Any dissent was however brutally crushed by the provincial administration who were also put in charge of land transactions.
The newly acquired large scale farms by the new African elite were neglected because the owners could get incomes from elsewhere but ensured they kept the titles for speculative purposes. Successive regimes continued to divide up the country into new administrative units to perpetuate their stay. The increased numbers of provincial administrators was used to do their bidding and for their trouble they were rewarded handsomely through immense powers, allocation of land, good salaries and a free hand to corruptly rob the citizens of their possessions. They were involved in the initiation of land clashes and perpetuated land case by making unilateral and arbitrary judgments.
Therefore, the first step to right up the mess is to totally abolish the Provincial Administration as we know it today and in their place put elected officials according to the new constitution. The second step is to introduce new drastic land policy that ensures all land reverts to government and the land registration abolished. This way every body in the country will become a land utilizer other than a land owner thus leveling the field and creating a class-free society. However, land will be availed for such purposes as farming, housing, industry, forestry, etc. but on a need basis. Thirdly, new lands will be reclaimed from the largely uninhabited areas by supplying them with amenities such as infrastructure, water, schools, hospitals, etc. This will deal the current obsession with land ownership a death knell and will end the border clashes and land cases for ever. This in my opinion is the best option available to us. But is anybody listening?
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