Secret letters expose how Moi helped his cronies to share choice farmlands

Once upon a time, until 1979, the government used to own several farms in Njoro and outlying areas. I have come across some documents, which now helps us understand how such expansive farms as Nakuru County’s Ngata and Kerma farms ended up in the hands of a few people.

The documents, which have been lying at the National Archives, help us resolve one of the questions that those people who pass by Ngata area in Nakuru ask: How did all these tycoons end up here?

Now we have the details.

How Ngata farm was cut into pieces and shared is a story of abuse of office; perhaps. Three people were at the centre of these allocations. President Moi, his assistant minister for Lands G.G. Kariuki, and director of settlements, the late P.K. Gota.

Interestingly, the minister for Lands, Jackson Angaine, appears to have been left out of all this and was not copied in the “secret” correspondence, between Mr Kariuki, now Laikipia Senator, and Mr Gota.

The ADC Ngata farm comprised 5,109 records and was one of the farms bought from European settlers and set aside for research and development in animal and crop husbandry. How they were given, or sold at a throw-away price, by the Kanu regime, has been hidden in loads of documents.

From the records, it appears that the seizure of Ngata farm started in April 1979 when the Department of Settlement, which was then administering Ngata farm, was asked to hand over the farm’s loose assets to Agriculture Development Corporation (ADC), a parastatal. The order was first communicated by then Provincial Commissioner Rift Valley to the Area Settlement Controller in charge of Nakuru area with instructions that they should complete it by April 30.

Interestingly, Mr Angaine loved Ngata farm and would have done anything to protect it. Also, we now know from the records, that the Director of Settlements, Mr Phares Gota, got to know of this transfer two days to the set deadline.

He decided to call Mr Angaine, who was then in Nanyuki, “to confirm and advise”.

Ironically, which exposes how President Moi ran his government, Mr Angaine told Mr Gota that he had not been consulted on the matter.
“He, however, undertook to contact His Exellency the President immediately as he had always felt that Ngata should be administered by this department and not by the ADC,” wrote Mr Gota to Mr Kariuki in a secret letter dated May 16, 1979.

What Mr Angaine did not know was that Ngata farm was being set for some takeover in years to come and that this was just the beginning. It was not the only one as other similar farms faced the same fate.

Mr Angaine tried to seek an appointment with President Moi before the D-Day. According to Mr Gota’s letter, “the minister informed me that he had an appointment with H.E. the President and would contact me later in the day or soon after following his audience with the President.”

“I have seen him twice since April 30, 1979 and has confirmed to me that he has been unable to see the President on this matter,” he writes.

Why a Cabinet minister was unable to get a date with the President on such an important matter is not clear. But according to the presidential directive, the land and the equipment was valued on May 2, 1979 after the minister failed to obtain a reversal of the decision.

ADC had previously tried to get Ngata farm without success. The first target was its movable assets, tractors and hallows. On the night of April 24, as Mr Ngota was agonising about the handover, he called a Mr Gakonyo, who was the general manager of ADC. He wanted an assurance that these assets would be moved to other Settlement Fund Trustee (SFT) farms which were in dire need of equipment, vehicles and livestock.

That night, Mr Gakonyo confirmed that that was the position. But it was not.

CORRECT WRONG IMPRESSION

We now know that another order came halting the transfer of Ngata assets. These would finally disappear! Some of those distributed went to Kerma farm, which has its own story below.

Why was Mr Gota telling GG Kariuki this story? “I trust you will endeavour to correct any wrong impression or briefs that some people may have conveyed to H.E. the President in connection with the disposal of the loose assets of the Ngata farm,” he tells Mr Kariuki.

Ngata Farm would be shared out later. Parliament was later told that while the farm was valued at Sh21 million, it was sold for a paltry Sh4.8 million with Kanu bigwigs getting it for free.

A list later tabled in Parliament’s Public Investments Committee indicated that some of the beneficiaries included AIC Church (30 acres for free), while Dr Sally Kosgey (plot No 13287/19) got 50 acres for Sh60,000. Others named were Benjamin Kipkulei, Wilson Boinett, Gen Mahmoud Mohammed, Jonathan Moi, among others.

A few months after some of the assets of Ngata farm were transferred to Kerma SFT farm, individuals started lining up to get plots on this farm, too.

If anyone doubts where the orders to sub-divide the farms came from, we now have Mr Gota’s letter dated July 28, 1979 to Mr Angaine and his assistant, GG Kariuki.

It reads: “The President called me to State House, Nairobi, this afternoon and directed me to sub-divide Kerma SFT Farm and allocate plots in the following manner: 400 acres to be allocated to Matuguta; 100 acres to Mr Erastus Mbijiwe, 100 acres to Mr George Kimeto; 50 acres to Major Peter Ikenye, 50 acres to Mr Elijah Sumbeiywo; 50 acres to Mr Bernard Njinu and 215 acres to 28 squatters resident on the farm” – a total of 965 acres of L.R. 10337.

There was something else in that letter: “LR No. 10365/2 (287) acres to be allocated to me.”

The people being allocated these plots were Moi’s senior security personnel. While Mr Mbijiwe was Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Kimeto was the Provincial Intelligence and Security Officer and Mr Sumbeiywo was head of presidential security. Mr Njinu was head of the elite presidential guard while Major Ikenye was Moi’s bodyguard, having inherited him from President Kenyatta.

In the same letter, Mr Gota says he had also been directed to sub-divide Ex-Bewa Farm into 43 plots for some “landless people he (Moi) wishes to settle”.

The word “landless” was a parlance (perhaps) for the politically correct.

In a personal letter that Mr Gota wrote 12 days later to Mr Kariuki, the director for settlement, expressed his “sincere thanks” to the assistant minister “for putting my application for land to HE The President, who kindly allocated me 287 acres of land at Kerma SFT Farm when he called me at State House, Nairobi, on the afternoon of July 18, 1979.”

Initially, according to a letter dated March 27, 1979 from then Permanent Secretary for Lands, Joe G Kibe, Mr Gota was to get 120 acres but it appears that through Mr Kariuki’s intervention, it increased to 287 acres.

Kerma SFT was a land previously owned by Kerma Ltd of a Mr Lavatelli and as we know from the records the government had bought 1,250 acres from him for Sh2.3 million to settle the landless. These were two parcels of land LR 10337 and 10365/2. As we have seen above LR 10365/2 was given to Mr Gota and the other shared out.

The problem that arose was on a 15-acre piece which signifies the kind of battles that went on in the land grabbing spree. The 15-acre LR 10338 in Njoro was not part of the purchase but Mr Mbijiwe demanded to be allocated.

Attempts by Mr Gota to get the ailing Mr Lavatelli to accept an offer (not from Mbijiwe) from the government saw both officials fall out. When Mr Gota finally got Mr Lavatelli, after several attempts, he told him that he had commited to sell the land to an army officer and that the deal was almost finalised.

President Moi, according to Mr Gota, had a personal interest too in the 15 acre farm and had told Mr Kariuki that the farm should be given to Mbijiwe.

PERSONAL INTEREST

What was worrying Mr Gota was that Mr Mbijiwe “publicly tells some key people within and outside the government that I had personal interest in the little parcel of land… that I have colluded with Mr Kibe and Lavatelli to frustrate his efforts to acquire the property and that I am using delaying tactics on the matter.”

“I wish not to be drawn into personal confrontation with Mr Mbijiwe or for that matter any person. Let me continue to render my loyal and untiring service to the wananchi…I have had no personal interest in this parcel of land, and I shall never have interest in it.”
We don’t know how this ended.

Some time on Tuesday August 28, 1979 at State House, Mombasa, President Moi, Mr Kariuki, PS Kibe and Mr Gota met and reached some decision which Mr Gota recorded in a confidential letter. It was not copied to Mr Angaine, who was not in the meeting.

It had been agreed that the department of settlement should buy land and settle the landless. It was also agreed that since there was a balance of money from a British grant to purchase farms owned from settlers it will be used to convert 41 SFT farms into conventional settlement schemes.

But no, no new farms were purchased. Instead, the government simply allocated what it had already bought and dished to senior officials and the politically correct.

Finally, just before the General Election of November 8, 1979, Mr Kariuki received a personal note from Mr Gota marked “Secret”. It was a list of all the available plots that could be allocated. The list is interesting and the details there on show how land allocation in Kenya is done:
Miti Mingi, near Lake Elmenteita: 2 plots x 10 acres.

Plot No 11 Moyasett of 50 acres: H.E. the President had expressed interest in allocating this plot himself and you may wish to remind him to give us a name for the selected person.

Ex-Hulme Farm near Kitale: 85 x 5 acre plots available. A PI of 150 acres is also available. A PI meant that the land had a permanent farm house.
Mbuyu Complex: 10 x 5 acre plots; I am awaiting your list of selected people.

A 222 acre forest excision from Mt Kenya (Mathira Division). 30 plots x 5 acres are available plus in addition to 1 x 50 acre plot that I shall brief you on its possible allocation.

Milele 13 farm (near Eldoret) 100 plots x 8 acre, 1 x 200 acre PI, and 1 x 150 acre PI.

Solai scheme: 7 plots x 10 acres (hilly and rather poor land).

Finally, these plots and parcels were given out. While some got it for a song, Kenyatta’s personal physician, Dr Eric Mngola, missed on an allocation of Mitimingi SFT Farm in Elmenteita after he failed to put a deposit. Finally, a certain Mawamu Group was allowed to buy 1,000 acres of the 2889 acres here.

As Buddha once said: “There are three things you can’t hide: the sun, the moon and the truth!”

Mr Kamau is the acting Editor, Investigations and Special Projects. [email protected]. @Johnkamau1