Land has always been a sensitive issue in Kenya and sometimes has even led to blood shed.Colonialism and lack of proper land systems has birthed lots of ancestral land wars that are some of the cases burdening our courts.
Right now at least five governors are entangled in a heated war with multinational companies over the fate of land whose leases are expiring.
In the name of securing community interest, some of the county chiefs 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 President Uhuru Kenyatta with reports that some of the embassies may have sought his intervention.
For some of the governors, land has become a negotiating tool for future political survival.
Governors from tea-growing counties in Rift Valley are going a step further in their narrative.
Led by Nandi Governor Stephen Sang, they are seeking to take over altogether multinational tea companies’ land whose leases have expired.
Besides, Nandi, Bomet and Kericho governors are pushing for compensation from the British government for forcible eviction of local communities during the colonial era.
“Thousands of hectares of our land in what came to be the white highlands in Rift valley were forcibly taken away from indigenous communities by the British colonial government during the First and Second world wars. Following the expired leases, such must be returned to those communities,” Mr Sang said on Friday.
The companies operating in the area include James Finlay, Unilever and George Williamson.
Mr Sang and his Kericho counterpart Paul Chepkwony are pushing for the creation of a public company to manage multinational tea companies.
The expectation is that this will force the companies to the negotiation table where they can cede some form of land or other resources.
Do you think the president will have to intervene?