At least five counties are entangled in a tussle with multinational companies over the fate of land whose leases are expiring.
In the name of securing community interest, some of the counties have presented a host of demands before any lease renewals can be undertaken, others rejecting the idea altogether amid accusations of brinkmanship and underhand boardroom dealings.
While they are keen to wrest ownership from the big companies, it is their hope the concerted bargain will see the regions that lost their ancestral land, annexed during colonisation, get it all back or at least part of it.
The new battlefront is said to have attracted the attention of the President with reports that some of the embassies may have sought his intervention.
Counties from tea-growing counties in Rift Valley are going a step further in their narrative. Led by Nandi County, they are seeking to take over altogether multinational tea companies’ land whose leases have expired. Besides, Nandi, Bomet and Kericho counties are pushing for compensation from the British government for forcible eviction of local communities during the colonial era.
Governors from tea-growing counties in Rift Valley are going a step further in their narrative. Besides, Nandi, Bomet and Kericho governors are pushing for compensation from the British government for forcible eviction of local communities during the colonial era.
In September, Del Monte Kenya Ltd signed an agreement with the Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu renewing a lease of the 8,000-acre piece land for another 99 years. In the arrangement, the company surrendered 635 acres of the land back to the county. Mr Waititu fought off claims he may have directly benefited in the negotiations.
The neighbouring Murang’a county is not keen on renewing Del Monte’s lease for the 14,000 acres of land unless the firm cedes 6,000. The county is demanding 3,000 acres before he signs the lease renewal, forcing the company to resort to court process.
In Nyanza, the fate of Dominion Farms are in limbo after the owner, Calvin Burgess, fled the region claiming a hostile working environment. Dominion Farms came to Kenya’s Yala Swamp Basin in 2004 with the promise to bring US style progress to Africa. In 2003, Mr Burgess secured a 25-year lease with the government for approximately 17,000 acres of swampland.
Further North, the oil revenue sharing debate slowed down the operations of Tullow Oil in Turkana County.
[Article source: Daily Nation, by Justus Wanga]
