News
Secret land deal that made Kenyatta first president
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta: He entered into a secret pact with the British government not to interfere with the skewed land distribution at independence. He would later extract a similar pledge from his successor, retired president Daniel arap Moi. Photo/FILE
Posted Saturday, September 20 2008 at 21:15
The three particularly sought Kenyatta’s position on the redistribution of the 10 million acres of arable land occupied by white settlers.
Kenyatta, writes Murumbi, told the three that his hands were tied as he had committed himself to the white settlers that all land in the country would change hands only on willing seller, willing buyer basis.
Another entry in Murumbi notes just before he resigned as vice president in 1966 expresses disappointment that President Kenyatta “had no political will to direct the Settler Transfer Fund (STF) to benefit millions of landless Africans as had been stated in the Kanu manifesto at independence”.
Instead, Murumbi noted, the STF scheme “had been hijacked by few African elites who were loaning themselves money meant for the landless and acquiring huge tracts of land at the expense of the majority poor”.
RSS