Rush to sell land in referendum panic

Anxiety over the impending referendum has set off panic among some big landowners, who are rushing to sell idle tracts in various parts of the country.

They include a big landowner who recently put up for sale a 97,000-acre ranch in Samburu Division of Kinango District in the Coast Province.

However, the transaction was blocked after a protest by squatters, a Nairobi land agent familiar with the failed deal informed the Saturday Nation on Friday.

A senior Lands official, who cannot be named as he is not the ministry’s spokesperson, said the transactions were largely on a willing buyer-willing seller basis and had been prompted by a clause in the proposed constitution to tax idle land.

Others, he said, were driven by fear they could lose out when Parliament fixes the minimum and maximum acreage an individual can own.

Property consultant Justus Munene told Saturday Nation that the panic was real.

He said the panic was triggered by government’s failure to spell out how people would dispose of land above limits Parliament would have set.

Playing politics

“People in property circles can attest that there is a rush to sell land and this has tended to push property values down. A number of people are selling land in a hurry. The risk is that we might agitate the market,” said Mr Munene.

He called on the government to issue a statement and explain how the taxation will be effected.

“If, for example, I have a few sheep on my 50,000 acres, is the land idle?” he asked.

He said Lands minister James Orengo could be playing politics with a sensitive issue and urged him to clarify things.

Indeed, the Lands ministry is said to have recently blocked the sale of a ranch at the Coast.

Protests from squatters

This followed protests from squatters in the area who claim the ranch used to be their ancestral land and hope it will revert back to them if the new constitution is passed.

The chief executive of Kenya Houses, Mr Eugene Kaikai, confirmed the panic sales, saying landowners wanted to dispose of huge tracts at once.

Another planning and property consultant, Mr Kivuti Karingi of Habitat Planners said the proposed constitution was good because land was now available to ordinary Kenyans. Most of it was being bought by cooperatives.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology sacco has just bought 500 acres in Mwiki.

But Mr Daniel Ojijo of Vila Care said he had not received instructions that could be described as panic selling.

“People with genuine property have no reason to fear,” he said.

This, he added, explained the ‘Yes’ team’s stance that those opposed to the proposed constitution were motived by fear of losing ill-gotten wealth, especially land.

Early this week, Mr Orengo said key politicians in the former Kanu regime were rushing to sell “grabbed” land before the proposed constitution was passed and had even sought President Kibaki’s intervention.

This angered former president Daniel Moi, who said it was immoral to insinuate that residents of Rift Valley grabbed “their own land” and threatened to spill the beans on land grabbers.

Former Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott said the proposed constitution needed consensus on a few issues, including the land. The referendum vote, he said, would be the final decision.

“There is the provision for the public to collect one million signatures and force an amendment to sections that are contentious including this emotive issue of land, abortion and counties,” said Mr Biwott, who on Friday declared he is in the ‘No’ camp.

Former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere, a ‘No’ supporter, said although fears that large landowners could lose their parcels were exaggerated, some could lose out.

The greatest hint was made by Mr Orengo who said a situation where some individuals own thousands of acres while others lived on unproductive land was unacceptable.

Speaking in Parliament this week, Mr Orengo said land limits would respect Kenyans’ rights to own property.

“When Parliament enacts laws to implement the constitution, it will be guided by the Bill of Rights which enshrines the rights of individuals or groups to own property of any description in any part of Kenya.”

The Bill of Rights in Article 40 (2) states that Parliament shall not enact a law which permits the State or any other person to arbitrarily deprive a person of property of any description.

Mr Paul Ndung’u, who chaired a commission to look into land issues in Kenya, said failure to enact land laws continued to raise the possibility of a total breakdown in this sector and social strife.

“This issue should have been addressed in 1963. The pressure of a few people who own huge tracts of land will always be there. The earlier it is addressed the better,” he says.

Mr Ndung’u said the establishment of an institution that handled land issues in the constitution, the National Land Commission, was a milestone.

“In the current Constitution, there is nothing much about land except the provision on Chapter IX on Trust Land and section 75 which seeks to provide security of property rights,” he said.

Kenya Lands Alliance chief executive officer Odenda Lumumba said the jitters, fears and concerns were driven by those who thought the government could easily take their land.

Mr Lumumba, however, added that Parliamentarians represented the interests of their people and were expected to debate the issue of land limits with the nature of the area they represented in mind.

“I am confident MPs will come up with a proposal that safeguards their constituents,” he said.

“But I am sure nobody will be mad enough to set limits that disadvantage a majority of Kenyans.”

Lands permanent secretary Dorothy Angote dispelled fears that the set limits would apply to land use and not ownership. She said that properly that was being used to increase economic gains.

“Why would somebody who owns land buy vegetables and onions?” she asked.

Lands Commissioner Zablon Mabea said land control boards would question the rationale of an individual owning an extra 100 acres if he or she had another 1,000 elsewhere.

Minimum and maximum acreages, Mr Mabea said, would depend on location.

“Areas like Gusiiland can have a minimum holding for agriculture purposes of one acre while others like Laikipia will have, say five acres. It will depend on the region,” he said.

He described taxation of idle land as a “softer landing” and said the government had the right to dispossess an individual of land