One of Mugithi’s aunts has materialized at our home. Big kikuyu woman, typically strong, the husband kept beating her until he thankfully shuffled of this mortal coil with a serious bout of gout. She still sheds a few tears, in relief, rather than grief.
The husband was one of the few privileged ones who prospered in the shining light of government benevolence. In the 70s there was something called the Kenyatta Resettlement Scheme – the government handed out title deeds to large parcels of land in different parts of the country to various beneficiaries. Mugithi’s uncle received a large swathe of land near Diani on the coast, and sometime last year the Aunt received another title deed to a fertile tract of land further north, near Malindi. She rents it out to a local tenant farmer.
“Who else got these parcels of land?” I ask her innocently, and the facts tumble out. There were about 300 title deeds handed out last year about 15 went to people from the local inhabitant community, the rest went to kikuyus and their kin. Why not to the local communities ?
“They don’t know how to farm…” says the Aunt disparagingly, crinkling her nose.
This is the voice I hear in my family – from my girl-friend, from her family, from her sisters, and from her uncles. Yet, people keep telling me this battle isn’t about tribe and ethnicity, but about land. In a country with communal nepotism, everything begins and ends with petty arguments and prejudices. Inferior and superior is decided on the basis of not having a foreskin, a servant maid is hired on the basis of her being from a “servile tribe”, the list is endless.
To understand this better, I think I should start by beating Mugithi everyday, and eating red meat and ugali three times a day. Luckily, I am already circumcised, my mother was Jewish.
came across you and i think you ahve a nice sense of humour…
OMG I’m kikuyu and couldn’t understand why this campaign agaisnt kikuyus has been so successful. No one in my family has ever received land or any favours from the government….bad I’ve arguing with many that this only was the case for people affiliated with Kenyatta…but from what you are saying it’s STILL happening! Shame! Oh shame shame.
Gal Africana:Have you ever asked yourself how
1) some localities in the Rift Valley came to have purely Kikuyu names like “Kiambaa”, “Rironi”, etc.?
2) the Maasai, Kalenjin, and other Rift Valley ethnic groups could have “sold” any land to people from other provinces when its a know fact that that land was, traditionally, communal land and could never be sold as no single person had a title deed?
3) in 2002 the kikuyu worked together with luo, luhya, kamba, and other major tribes to get rid of Moi, KANU, and presumbably kalenjins, but by 2005 it was the kikuyu against the luo, kamba (yes, the kamba have only now alligned themselves with the kikuyu because Kalonzo has been made VP!!), luhya, kalenjin and other smaller tribes?
I could go on and on, but I’m sure you see the trend.
Sad but so so true.
I suppose it takes an outsider’s ‘fresh’ view to put things in perspective. You have a very keen understanding of whats going on.
Love the blog.
Wondering what we can do to distinguish between land that was wrongly handed out, and land that people saved up and bought. Because at the end of the day we’re going to need enforceable property rights to take the country out of poverty…. ()
Kibaki and his turning a blind eye to this crap has been the worst thing for Kikuyus themselves!