Kenyatta Family continues 'stealing poor peoples land'

[Dr. Job]

Kenyatta family's 30,000 acre land in Taita Taveta has 99-year lease renewed by NLC

Dr Muhammad Swazuri, the National Land Commission chairman. PHOTO | FILE By DANIEL NYASSY, dnyassy@ke.nationmedia.com

Posted Wednesday, January 21 2015 at 04:00

In Summary

• National Land Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri said the Kenyatta family is among investors who applied for renewal of their land leases which expired in 2013.
• Dr Swazuri confirmed that the Kenyattas own 30,000 acres despite reports that they own half of Taita Taveta.
• The family owns thousands of acres of prime land across the country.

A 99-year lease for a 30,000-acre farm belonging to the Kenyatta family in Taita Taveta has been renewed, National Land Commission chairman Muhammad Swazuri has revealed.
He said the family is among investors who applied for renewal of their land leases which expired in 2013.

Dr Swazuri said that the Kenyattas own 30,000 acres disputing popular rumours that they own "half of Taita Taveta".

"The public has consistently been made to believe that the Kenyatta family owns huge tracts of land in the county. This is wrong," said Dr Swazuri in Mombasa on Monday.

Two thirds of Taita Taveta county's 4.2 million acres is given up to national parks. Previous reports have suggested the Kenyattas own 124,000 acres (about 3 per cent), about 50,000 of which is allegedly in the name of Ms Beth Mugo, a cousin to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Land owned by the Kenyattas has been the subject of debate in Kenya's political scene and featured prominently in the run-up to the 2013 General Election.

The family owns thousands of acres of prime land across the country.

The land was acquired by first President Jomo Kenyatta in the 1960s and 1970s when the colonial government and the World Bank funded a settlement transfer fund scheme that enabled government officials and wealthy Kenyans to acquire land from the British.

Besides land, the family has majority stakes in Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), Brookside Dairy and the upmarket Heritage Hotels East Africa chain. It is also linked to Media Max Company, which owns K24 TV, Kameme Radio and The People newspaper.

Among individuals whose leases have expired include former Taveta MP Basil Criticos who had two pieces of land.

One measures 2,970 acres and the other 7,000 acres. The former MP is among investors who have applied for renewal of leases although controversy surrounds the issue.

One of the former MP's parcels of land was the scene of bloody clashes last year, which resulted in two deaths, after hundreds of squatter invaded and subdivided it among themselves.

READ: Court grants orders to subdivide former MP's land

Meanwhile, Land secretary Charity Ngilu has said that squatters occupying the controversial Waitiki Farm in Likoni constituency will have to pay for the land.

Mrs Ngilu said negotiations had been completed between her ministry and the owner, Mr Waitiki Kamau, on how the land will be acquired

Kenyattas lease of 30,000-acre land in Taveta renewed - Politics and policy - businessdailyafrica.com

 

[Dr. Job]

For a public servant to make a statement like below shows how Kenya is stuck in some deep sh!t !

Ngilu and Swazuri need to apologise to Kenyans for the mess they are creating everyday.

"The public has consistently been made to believe that the Kenyatta family owns huge tracts of land in the county. This is wrong," said Dr Swazuri in Mombasa on Monday

 

[Dr. Job]

Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki land holdings

Kenya's two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country. The extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres - approximately the size of Nyanza Province - according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials. (This report first appeared in the Standard Newspaper report by Mr. Otsieno Namwaya)

The Kibaki and Moi families also own large tracts, most held in the names of sons and daughters and other close family members, all concentrated within the 17.2 % of Kenya that is arable or valued. Remember that 80 per cent of all land in Kenya is mostly arid and semi arid land.

According to the Kenya Land Alliance, more than a 65% of all arable land in Kenya is in the hands of only 20 per cent of the 35 million Kenyans. That has left millions absolutely landless while another 67 per cent on average own less than an acre per person.

The building land crises in the country, experts say, will be difficult to solve because the most powerful people in the country are also among its biggest landowners.

The tracts of land under the Kenyatta family are so widely distributed within the numerous members in various parts of the country that it is an almost impossible task to locate all of them and establish their exact sizes.

During Kenyatta's 15-year tenure in State House, he used the elaborate STFS scheme funded by the World Bank and the British Government, to acquired large pieces of land all over the country. Other tracts, he easily allocated to his family.

Among the best-known parcels owned by Kenyatta's family, for instance, are the 24, 000 acres in Taveta sub-district adjacent to the 74, 000 acres owned by former MP Basil Criticos.

Others are 50, 000 acres in Taita that is currently under Mrs Beth Mugo, an Assistant minister of Education and niece of Kenyatta, 29, 000 acres in Kahawa Sukari along the Nairobi-Thika highway, the 10, 000 acre Gichea Farm in Gatundu, 5, 000 acres in Thika, 9,000 acres in Kasarani and the 5, 000-acre Muthaita Farm.

These are beside others such as Brookside Farm, Green Lee Estate, Njagu Farm in Juja, a quarry in Dandora in Nairobi and a 10, 000-acre ranch in Naivasha. There is another 200 acres in Mombasa, and 250 acres in Malindi.

Other pieces of land owned by the Kenyatta family include the 52,000-acre farm in Nakuru and a 20,000-acre one, also known as Gichea Farm, in Bahati under Kenyatta's daughter, Margaret. Besides, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, widow of the former President, owns another 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti while a close relative of the Kenyatta family, a Mrs Kamau, has 40,000 acres in Endebes in the Rift Valley Province.

Uhuru owns 5,000 acres in Eldoret, 3,000 acres in Rongai and 12,000 acres in Naivasha, 100 acres in Karen, and 200 acres in Dagoretti. A 1,000-acre farm in Dagoretti is owned by Kenyatta's first wife Wahu.

It is also understood that part of the land on which Kenyatta and Jomo Kenyatta Universities are constructed initially belonged the Criticos family. The government bought the land from him in 1972 under the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme and transferred to the Kenyatta family the same day Criticos sold it to the government. Land for the two universities was subsequently sold partly and a portion donated by the family.

Dr. Job

 

[Dhuks]

How is renewing the lease of your land stealing?