Jomo Kenyatta used his position to grab land or allocate land to himself irregularly whichever way you want to describe it. He grabbed land from peasants, from the colonialists who were leaving, he excised foreast land, beach plots etc

Some of this land had originally been grabbed by Europeans from the peasants. When the Europeans left , it should have been returned to the peasants. Jomo and other big wigs took it instead.

Too bad most people's grandfather did not have the wherewithal to ammass such large portions of prime land.

I blame Kenyatta for the mess that is Nairobi city. he set the precedent for land grabbing and irregular allocation that has bedeviled towns all over Kenya. Today land that was supposed to be set aside for road reserves is grabbed by some big wig. So there is no space left to expand roads or other infrastructure.

- So when you are stuck in endless traffic,
- When you see a primary school land being grabbed
- When a playing field for neighbour hood kids is grabbed
- When the city authorities have no space to build much needed amenities like fire stations or even hospitals.
- When you face constant water shortage or power outtages due to poor city planning
- .........

You can thank the founding father of the nation for creating this land grabbing culture whose ramifications are seen all over today.

Where this land (Ruiru) sits there were no peasants then (1850 - 1960) Most peasants were in current Dagoretti, Kiambu town, Murang'a, Kirinyaga and Nyeri.Before the Mubeberu, land in central was communal. People started having their own pieces of land in 1957

Page 17 and 18 of this report shows the genesis of land problems and the greed for land in this country. Reading this part provides insight why our land policy is so effed-ep.Dr. Bitange once wrote about this in one of his columns in the newspaper, but i guess most wazuans used it to wrap a key-quarter of nyama with it. Old Jomo is not to blame, neither is baba Moi....we cannot as a nation continue to bury our heads in the sand about our poor land policy. One example is the expansion of Nairobi. It is wrong for Nairobi to expand southwards (Kitengela, Rongai, Isinya). Those are natural habitats for wild animals especially the endangered ones...etc. It is also not meant to expand Northwards. Those are the river catchment areas etc

Great. Can someone come forward with a title/lease and claim Jomo grabbed his land? I guess not.

Reminds me of a story I heard of Mountaineers who in the 60s changad money to buy large pieces of land from wazungus at the coast. So the land is divided into small plots and members can choose which ones they want. Some people took their wives from Muranga and went to inspect the land. The ladies looked at the plots closest to the ocean (beach plots) and declared, "Guku no muthanga mutheri, hatiri kindu ki ngikura haha, kaba nakuria iguru kundu tungikuria irio." (This place is all sand, nothing can grow here, it is better those other plots [furthest from the ocean] because we can grow food there. So they left the beach plots alone and chose plots 4 or 5 rows from the beach. Only smart guys like Matiba could see the value of land close to the ocean so they bought those ones.