Land continues to be the problem and reason for conflict in our world and especially in Africa.Here is an extract from one of Kenya´s dailies with reference to land and governance in Kenya.
Part of the problem,
says historian Jennifer Wydner in From Harambee to Nyayo, is that the
Rift Valley has often acted inconsistently and on many occasions swam
against the current.At the centre of the current rebelliousness is over whether to compensate Mau Forest illegal settlers.History
lecturer at Moi University, Prisca Cherono, while acknowledging the
magnitude of environmental destruction, says the ‘politics-as-usual’
attitude has blinded politicians from the region.Cherono
says: "Past governments failed to address the land issue. There is a
perception that the land alienated in the name of unoccupied land and
given other tribes is still a source of tension. Sad, though, is the
truth that successive governments have not educated people on
co-existence."Nakuru Town MP Lee Kinyanjui says the matter must be resolved."We
must do it (evictions) and do it in a hurry as it has ceased being a
serious environmental issue. It has become a political issue. The Mau
Forest Complex controversy is fuelled by the Kibaki succession debate.
The destruction of the forest has provided a platform for politicians
to make political capital," says Kinyanjui.His
observation is central in Wydner’s treatise on greed for power in
post-independence politics. The historian says besides the often-brazen
push for centralisation of power vis-‡-vis majimboism:fodder for conflict "The
third focus of power during the Kenyatta period lay with the groups on
the edges of the White Highlands, the Kalenjin and the Luhya, who
produced much of the country’s maize stock. Land was a scarce resource
for both these groups, as it was too for Kikuyu squatters and Kiambu
business elite."Alienation of land before independence, Cherono observes, provided the fodder for incessant political clashes. She
says: "We may move people by force, but this will be a temporary
solution. We must address the catastrophic environmental issue that is
Mau by acknowledging the impact of population pressure on meagre
natural resources."After the reintroduction of political pluralism, Cherono says such economic interests are still used to stoke ethnicity."Against all this, the innocent suffer. Demographic movements are normal when there is a population explosion," she says.Inability
of successive governments to confront impunity and economic exclusion
of communities flushed out of fertile lands in Kenya’s bread basket has
tended to feed warlike activities, according to former President Moi’s
biographer Andrew Morton. He
cites the political uncertainty at the dawn of independence, when the
Kipsigis made the Luo and the Kikuyu the object of their anger as the
country debated independence constitution and the distribution land and
other national resources.
The standard newspaper.
