Governors scramble for land owned by multinationals

As land gains more currency, there has been increasing appetite among most Kenyans to own a piece of soil, whether for commercial purposes in urban areas or subsistence in rural settings.

The rush for plots in Nairobi and other major towns is understandably fueled by the quest for many to build homes. But a worrying trend is taking root where suspicious land deals are being cut by county government leadership behind the scenes.

A review of a number of counties reveals how governors have targeted multinationals owning huge swathes of agricultural land in various parts of the country. The strategy is to arm-twist these multinationals’ management for kickbacks to renew leases or approve development plans. Land deals have turned into a negotiating tool for political survival for many governors.

After all the chest-thumping in public rallies, the governors and their advisers retreat to the boardrooms with multinationals away from public glare and cameras to strike deals. They then announce what they want the public to hear or just keep quiet. Later, private outfits spring up selling land that belonged to the multinationals.

From Kiambu County where coffee farms are giving way to glitzy real estate projects, to Turkana where oil is flowing from once desolate arid regions, land has become a major bargaining chip for political support.

In these seven counties – Kiambu, Murang’a, Kericho, Nandi, Turkana, Siaya and Kajiado – governors have shown strong interest in land owned by multinational companies. Some have reportedly already earned their bargains through the hardball tactics from companies seeking to renew land leases or change use from agriculture to commercial.

Kiambu County: Kabogo vs Waititu
Within Kiambu County, near Thika Town, lies over 5,000 acres of land belonging to SOCFINAF Company Ltd, which is owned by foreign investors developing a multi-billion shilling city in the area.  SOCFINAF  was previously owned by Belgians who abandoned coffee farming when prices dipped.

It is alleged that Kabogo, a shrewd businessman who lost the Kiambu governor seat to Ferdinand Waititu in a surprise last-minute change of wave, now owns 1,000 acres of SOCFINAF  land, whose prices have skyrocketed as development gets under way.

The interesting bit is how is alleged to have acquired the land by bargaining for a share while serving as the governor of Kiambu County when the foreigners who had bought the land in 2007 sought to renew the leases. Whether the former governor paid a cent for the land remains unclear, as there has never been an audit on how he got his feet into the project, owning an estimated 1,000 acres.

This strengthens Kabogo’s financial fortunes ahead of the next election when he is expected to come back to claim his governor seat. Already, he is taking advantage of Ferdinand Waititu’s poor performance in his first year in office to ripple the political waters.

In fact, Kabogo wouldn’t mind unseating his rival even before 2022. Recently there was a social media campaign #ImpeachWaititu sponsored by those who have fallen out with the governor and now aligned to Kabogo. Waititu, who is also building his war chest is likely to put up a strong defence against his rival’s onslaught. This will the the battle to watch in 2022.

Besides, with such finances, Kabogo, being a ‘handshake’ supporter, is likely to influence national politics, especially in Central Kenya where he is galvanising opposition against Deputy President William Ruto.

Enough land to go round?
When he entered office last year, Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu found desert already served at the Socfinaf dinner table. With that lucrative deal gone to Kabogo, Waitutu had to look elsewhere.  With lots of land in Kiambu, Waititu found low-hanging fruits at Del Monte, the American juice manufacturer that holds 22,000 acres cutting across Kiambu and Murang’a counties.

The deal was no brainer. On September 7th, Waititu renewed the leasehold of Del Monte Kenya’s 8,000-acre land in Kiambu for another 99 years. In return, the food processing firm agreed to surrender 635 acres to the county. The move, which has all the trappings of deal-making, has been given a suspicious verdict with conflicting details on exactly how much land was surrendered by Del Monte.

Thika Town MP Patrick Wainaina says the total acreage surrendered was about 1,000 acres. The Governor has kept the finer details of the lease agreement under wraps. Kiambu Woman Representative Gathoni wa Muchomba even filed a complaint with the National Land Commission demanding a report explaining how the deal between the juice maker and the county government was arrived at and the actual number of acreage surrendered.

In Murang’a, the Governor plays hard to get
While Del Monte had it easy in Kiambu, Murang’a, where it holds 14,000 of acres, is proving a different ball game. There has been a tussle pitting the company and the Murang’a County leadership, led by Governor Mwangi wa Iria, over the renewal of the lease. Wa Iria is demanding that Del Monte Surrenders 3,000 acres before he signs the lease renewal, forcing the company to resort to court process.

In suit papers filed in court in 2015, Del Monte Managing Director Stergios Gkaliamoutsas indicated that political leaders from Murang’a had demanded more than 3,000 acres of land from Del Monte as a condition to renew the lease that expires next year. The governor says he wants to use the 3,000 acres to set up a resort city in the county, but that’s not assured in a country where land is a coveted resource that can change title holders overnight.

Tea politics in Kericho & Nandi counties
Governors from tea-growing counties in Rift Valley are going a step further in their narrative. They are seeking to take over altogether multinational tea companies’ land whose leases have expired. Besides, the Nandi, Bomet and Kericho governors are pushing for compensation from the British government for forcible eviction of local communities during the colonial era.

Land leases for most of the companies have expired and the county governments want them handed over to their administrations. The companies operating in the area include, among others, James Finlay, Unilever and George Williamson.

Rift Valley governors appear to be reading from the same script as their colleagues in Central Kenya: intimidate lease holders until they yield to certain private and public demands. Nandi Governor Stephen Sang and his Kericho counter Paul Chepkwony are pushing for the creation of a public company to manage multinational tea companies, hoping to force the companies to cede some land and other resources.

The Dominion question in Siaya
In Nyanza region, the fate of Dominion farms appear to lie in the hands of Opposition leader Raila Odinga and the person tasked to bring home the bacon is Siaya Governor Cornell Rasanga. The investor has in the past claimed Mr Odinga and other politicians allied to him are frustrating his business through extortion, violence and eviction threats.

Dominion Farms came to Kenya’s Yala Swamp Basin in 2004 with the promise to bring US style progress to Africa. In 2003, Calvin Burgess secured a 25-year lease with the Kenyan government for approximately 17,000 acres of swampland.

Now the area political leadership is out to have a share of the land and they are using threats against the company’s management. They have drawn some success: in 2010, 900 acres were officially given to the counties, adding to the 2,500 acres that the community already had.

A salty affair in Kajiado County
Mid November, a low-profile fallout with far-reaching implications on the mining of soda ash on Lake Magadi shook Maasai land. Tata Chemicals, formerly Magadi Soda, found itself on the wrong side of Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku over land rates running into billions of shillings.

Tata Chemicals Ltd reportedly owes the county Ksh17 billion in rates for 224,991 acres of land for the last six years.  Ole Lenku insists the company must pay the full amount or face auction.

 Ole Lenku is justified in demanding what’s due to the county, but his approach smacks of the arm-twisting tactics being used by his colleagues elsewhere to have the multinational managers by their balls.

The desire to squeeze something from the company, either land or other concessions, means that even agreements reached by previous government have to be ignored. Also, what the former governor got from the gentleman’s agreement can be anyone’s guess.

Oiling the fortune wheels of Turkana
Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok has been very busy lately following up on sharing of revenues from oil drilled from the county. The mining company, Tullow Oil, was under siege for months, a few weeks after President Uhuru Kenyatta flagged off the first batch of crude oil from Ngamia 8 to the port of Mombasa. Residents, led by the governor and other political leaders, paralysed oil drilling with violent demonstrations.

The government intervened and gazetted Turkana Grievances Management Committee to spearhead engagement with the local community. In essence, this is the typical scheme for a public issue to be sorted out privately, where political and government officials can hammer out deals that eventually hand the public the short end of the stick.

As more land leases come up for renewal, Kenyans are bound to see more of the arm-twisting and deal making in other counties.