EAST AFRICA: SHOULD THE REST OF E.AFRICA LEARN FROM KENYA

Kibakism or even call it the Odingaism latest devilish phenomena undoing goodwill, splendor and hope ,muzzling ascendancy to democracy our east African society is so thirsting after. The gravity of ferocity and animalistic tendencies we are witnessing in Kenya speaks a lot about how the Kenyan social fabric has come age. Since the birth of this nation no carnage of this immensity has ever been seen, what started as little land feuds long ago are spiraling into “a genocide”, thanks to the rigged election? Land can be a curse if not handled well; it’s considered the single most important resource by many an African family.

The Land policy is bed ridden in many east African states less Tanzania where land ownership is distorted but not so much like its neighbors as to afford whole societies going overboard. Uganda is witnessing what we should call a policy many opponents think is a guise by Government to legally grab land ordinary people’s land.

The people are not taking it sitting down and there is an aggressive campaign to reverse the trend; many men in uniform are using their untouchable status to unscrupulously purchase land and throwing off owners and squatters alike though they have dwelt there for generations. There is this investor syndrome where Government officials are handing out properties meant for schools and others privately owned to would be investors.

They only turn out to be some powerful officials behind the investment drive and their much hyped investments are mostly hot air.
Rwanda’s genocide was much due to the same land resource sharing, being the most populous nation in the region, the country after the genocide is struggling to come to terms with itself, and the new Government is steering a way forward into services sector development to avert any pressures to depend on land for many of its people especially the young generation.

Kenya is the recent eruption of the long brewing land frictions which have bedeviled much of Africa, coupled with diverse ethnicity some what with vestiges from many feudal societies littering pre colonial Africa. That period was characterized with huge chunks of land given to the royals and other people resorted to squatting a practice where that has still not changed, descendants still in same landless and landlord positions. This does not go down well with many.


Tanzanians, Rwandans, Ugandans have much to learn from the Kenya problem leading to the fallout not wholly attributed to land though, other situations like dictatorship , skewed distribution of jobs and other national interests has also helped foment the problem culminating into social strife we are witnessing
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There is a thinking however that a pre industrial east Africa has to have most upcountry dwellers migrate to cities for their land to be taken by single big farmers who could jump start the Agricultural revolution here. Whether that can happen is for you and me to have a wait and see attitude. Many proponents like Museveni have stated it time and again if we have to jumpstart Agriculture and ultimately industrialization to be realized.