Kenyatta led a pack of ministers MPs and civil servants in getting plots

Concerned that a good chunk of money it had loaned the government for resettlement of squatters had been diverted to the political elite, the World Bank on June 19, 1968, wrote to Lands and Settlement minister Jackson Angaine.

The President had at the time led a pack of ministers, MPs and senior civil servants in acquiring prime plots in the settlement schemes using the World Bank’s development loan.

“I hope we may have your assurance that so far as the IBRCD/CDC Schemes are concerned, all future settlers will be required to reside on the holding and that there will be no more so-called “Z” schemes within the project area,” wrote World Bank director for Africa A.G. El Emary.

South Kinangop

Records show that by the time the World Bank intervened, President Kenyatta had acquired 216.5 acres in South Kinangop of land previously owned by a Mr Grimwood. He did not pay for improvements on the farm, estimated to have been worth Sh43,680 but only paid Sh24,000 for the land value.

Mr Angaine was the other beneficiary, having secured 252 acres in Timau after paying Sh11,929 deposit — equivalent to 10 per cent of the sale price.

The minister also took a Sh87,000 loan from the World Bank settlement kitty despite the fact that he did not qualify for such a loan.

A World Bank mission report that was attached to Angaine’s letter raised “serious concern” over the “unsatisfactory past performance” of Kenya Loan 303 KE on settlements. The schemes had been left without water, and very few extension officers. Besides, the World Bank said, corrupt cooperative officials were embezzling money meant for poor settlers in a free-for-all frenzy.

Behind the scenes, however, the World Bank struggled to amend things from Washington. It sent missions and protest letters to Finance minister James Gichuru and his Lands counterpart Angaine.

The bank’s other concern was that productivity of the livestock and provision of water had been overlooked making it impossible for the schemes to make economic sense. By 1967, negotiations were still going on about how to fund the water projects. It was further reported that cooperatives were charging too much for their services.

Bitter behind the scenes feud between the bank and top government officials over rampant corruption forced the World Bank to signal that all the proposed projects under its funding would soon come to a halt.

Fraud and mismanagement of cooperative societies had been cited as a drawback to loan repayments and embezzlement of funds continued to haunt the government. Besides, the Bretton Woods institution felt that President Kenyatta had gone against the spirit of a clause in the Supplemental Loan agreement that required Kenya to inform the World Bank of key appointments at the Ministry of Lands and Settlements.

It was not the first time the World Bank had complained about use of settlement funds. In the Supervision Report dated April 11, 1968, the bank announced the cancellation of the financing agreement unless the government took a series of steps to remedy the situation.

By then 30,000 squatters had been settled in the One Million Acre Scheme but the entire project had become a white elephant. “Maize yields are still very low. Livestock production appears to be particularly serious,” said the report.

Particularly scathing

The World Bank was particularly scathing in its attack on how the cooperative societies were being run. “Unfortunately they have not been able to discharge the heavy and multifarious responsibilities allocated to them and have proved to be very inefficient and corrupt,” said the report. “In spite of this state of affairs, there appears to be no alternative but to make the cooperatives work as efficiently as possible.”

Failure to audit the cooperatives — some for up to three years — meant that new farmers did not know the state of the societies they were joining or how money was being spent.

Angaine admitted