Investors turn to counties as cost of land in Nairobi hits the roof

With land in Nairobi and its environs shrinking fast and its cost rising rapidly, investors are spreading their wings to the counties, where land is not only still available, but also comparatively cheaper.

Co-operative societies, land companies and individuals in the fast-growing real estate sector who previously dominated the capital and its suburbs are now rushing to areas further afield, where they are buying land for speculation and subsequently subdividing it for sale.

Consequently, parts of Laikipia, Narok, Nakuru and Kajiado counties, which had for long been dominated by ranches, conservancies, and undeveloped land used as pasture by pastoralists, have become popular with investors.

However, this strategy by investors keen on making a killing from the booming real estate sector has not gone down well in some areas, leading to clashes with local communities.

While the local communities see it as an invasion of their pastureland, investors argue that the protests are belated, often coming after they have paid handsomely for the land.

Eden Park Investments, a real estate company that recently bought a 2,300-acre piece of land in Nanyuki with the intention of subdividing it, found itself in just such a situation.

According to one of the company’s directors, Joseph Njoroge, all was well during the transaction with the land owner, but the situation took a nasty turn when they took their potential clients to view the expansive land, which previously served as pasture for the neighbouring community. Armed Maasai morans confronted them, accused them of grabbing their community land and ordered them to leave.

“They claimed that we were taking their land, yet we had already paid the real owner for it. What baffles me is that when we were making the payments — which was a fortune — no one objected but after we had subdivided the land and processed the titles, we were confronted by demonstraters,” Mr Njoroge said.

He says, although he managed to calm down the morans — who he claimed were incited  by local leaders — and kept his clients out of harm’s way, the situation is unhealthy for their business.

“If your potential clients encounter violence on land they intend to buy for settlement or any other investment, don’t expect them to return. What will happen is that the land will remain in the hands of the pastoralists, who will continue grazing their animals on it,” he said.

Mr Njoroge, who has been in the sector for a long time, said on he was once forced to demand his money back after he was attacked during a visit to a parcel of land he had bought in Kajiado County.

STEALING COMMUNITY LAND

The local youths accused him of “stealing” the community’s land.

“As an investor, I cannot risk putting my money in such a place. I will look for other areas where my investment is safe, and it’s the hostile community that will suffer from lack of development,” he said, adding that the government should intervene in such situations.

He noted that some of his colleagues in the sector had lost huge amounts of money in similar situations.

Recently, Narok Governor Samuel ole Tunai complained that the locals were being duped into selling their land to investors who have been flocking the county which, despite being close to Nairobi, has huge tracts of undeveloped land.

The governor directed the county’s land registrar to suspend all subdivision of land and issuance of title deeds, citing corruption in land acquisition and disposal.

In Nakuru County, members of Utheri wa Lari Land Buying Company have been engaged in a long drawn-out battle with the local Maasai after they bought a 22,000-acre piece of land in Mai Mahiu previously owned by a White settler.

A number of the company’s members have been killed and others injured by youth from the community, who are opposed to their settling on the land.

Last month, a Nakuru court ruled in favour of the land buying company after the members produced ownership documents for the land, which the community insists is ancestral.

The company’s Chairman, Mr Stephen Muiri, said it had taken nine years of contributions by members to raise the Sh32.5 million they used to buy the land.

The first group settled on the land in 1988 after it was demarcated by surveyors and individual title deeds awarded to the allottees.

However, their peaceful life was disrupted in 1992 when ethnic clashes erupted, which saw arsonists burn their houses and steal their property, forcing them to seek refuge in different areas as internally displaced persons.

Mr Muiri said that during the President Mwai Kibaki’s regime, the members returned in 2005 and tried to resume farming but were they were evicted.

“Since then, they have never allowed us to settle on the land. Any time we visit the land, we are attacked by people who we know have been incited by a few individuals carrying out activities on our land,” he said.

Meanwhile, in 2010, the Maasai in Mau Narok opposed the government’s suggestion to resettle 800 internally displaced persons on the 2,000-acre Rose Farm. They argued that the land was subject to a legal suit they had filed over injustices committed against them by the colonial government and President Jomo Kenyatta’s regime.

But just why are the Maasai and Samburu opposed to the sale of land in their respective areas on the basis that it is ancestral land?
According to Mr John ole Kaunga, a rights activist with interest in land matters in Laikipia County, the local communities have carried out activities on the land for decades, without anyone claiming ownership.

REDUCING PASTURE LAND

Besides, he added, the communities feel that, by turning what has been serving them as pasture into concrete jungles, investors are edging them out of “business” by reducing their pastureland.

“The land is owned by a group of people who bought it from White settlers just after independence. The owners, who have the legal documents, did not live or farm there so the pastoralists turned it into grazing land and because no one had ever complained, they assumed it belonged to the community,” he said.

A few years back, Mr Kaunga said, the owners began selling their land, causing an uproar within the local communities, which now feel they are being dispossessed of their land.

“The owners of the land have the titles, but the people occupying it believe it is theirs, and that is why they talk of the historical injustices because most of the land was bought through the National Trustee Fund. The communities argue that, having occupied the land for years, they should be given first priority in the sales,” he said.

Mr Kaunga, however, said the pastoralists should also form societies and companies and buy land instead of making other Kenyans incur huge losses.

To end the conflict, which he said is between the law and rights, Mr Kaunga said, the government should buy land that is put up for sale and give it back to the community in a programme similar to the one used to resettling the post-election violence victims.

He warned that, if the matter was not properly addressed, it could be a time bomb.

But Kiambu Senator Kimani Wamatangi, who has been following the tribulations of Utheri wa Lari members, said it was unacceptable for people with title deeds not to be allowed to occupy land on the basis that it was ancestral land, when they had bought it genuinely.

“Every Kenyan has a right to live and own property anywhere and as Kiambu leaders, we will take up this matter. We cannot have people treating title deeds like ordinary sheets of paper such that, even with a title deed, I can’t be allowed to live on my land,” the senator said.