Will Konza Ranch go the Malili way?
Irate Konza farmers' vote signals
end of society as grabbers close in
By Martin Masai
Konza Ranching and Farming Co-operative society is approaching its last days after its members' resolution to speed up the process of splitting the land to individual plots.
The resolution is seemingly ur-gent after members were told that thieves associated with the Malili fiasco where farmers lost millions had made reports to the police with a view to having the current Konza leaders locked up and replaced with officials who can facilitate theft.
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A section of Members of Konza Ranching during the
Special Annual General Meeting |
At a charged Special Annual General Meeting, the farmers re-solved to subdivide the ranch into small pieces for each share-holder for resale to the Government and other interested individuals.
The resolution is a set back for the plotters who made statements to the police, saying the officials made illegal transactions at the ranch without the authority of the farmers(See the accusations else-where)
The members endorsed the subdivision of the 22,000 acre ranch into 10.8 acre pieces during a Special Annual General Meeting at the ranch headquarters in Machakos district. The ranch has members drawn from both Makueni and Machakos counties.
During the ,meeting, farmers told politicians, land brokers and other speculators to keep away from the ranch affairs warning they would take both legal and political action on any influential person trying to meddle in the affairs of the co-operative society.
They resolved to march to Nairobi in pro-test if any of its officials were arrested and changes effected in the leadership of the ranch over the false accusations. The chairman of the ranch Mr David Mutangili told members that he had re-solved to call them to inform them of cir-cum-stances that were emerging that are aimed at disrupting instructions the farmers had given his committee that some properties be sold to fund the sub-division process.
He told the meeting that sales proceeds are held by their lawyer and that only Sh 38m had been realized and that Sh 20 was being held due to a dispute over the sale of a building in Machakos Town where Central High school operates from.
The shareholders were irritated when they heard that some influential people were trying to meddle in the ranch by trying to implicate its executive Committee members of criminal activities with the aim of dislodging them from power and replace them with their own stooges who they could control.
The influential persons were trying to dislodge the leadership of the ranch in the same way they did to Malili ranching Company last year which saw powerful politicians fleece poor ranchers of over Sh 200m in shady deals.
Police through the CID were being used to harass the executive committee members who, he said, have been grilled by CID officers more than four times on trumped allegations they had misappropriated society funds totaling to Sh70,000 from irregular sale of land.
He said the officials had forwarded all accounting books of the ranch for investigation.
The ranch with 1,594 members straddles Machakos and Makueni counties and is the only viable and profitably ran co-operative ranch in the area.
Others have been ran down by successive corrupt management and control by in-flu-en-tial land brokers and politicians bent on milking the co-operatives.
The thrust of the conspiracy is hinged on the need for land by both Government and individuals owing to the economic opportunities arising from the internationally acclaimed ICT Park set for construction in the former Malili ranch in Makueni County which borders Konza ranch in Machakos County.
Mutangili told shareholders that he was privy to information that the Government was looking out for 1000 acres for the construction of an airport along the Mombasa-Nairobi Highway while some private developers were keen to put buildings and needed of 500 acres for the venture.
He said the brokers fronting for the powerful individuals in the area planned to buy the 10 acre each shareholder was en-titled to at sh1 million and sell off later at sh10 million per acre to raise sh100 million per piece.
”Shareholders should not allow land brokers to speculate on with our land and make kill using our property. We should only negotiate with the expected buyers”, warned the chairman.
According to Sam Muumbi a shareholder and a member of the influential Kamba Council of Elders as well as a prominent businessman warned politicians to keep off the ranching society.
“We don’t want to hear about brokers. Let the Government engage us legitimately if it wants our land. We must establish international standards for land uses in other countries in Europe and America so that fraudsters do not cheat us”, he said.
He continued, “We don’t want politicians out to make money for the 2012 General election campaigns through us. We don’t want them to come here to use their influence to steal from us. Anyone interested in our property must deal with our legitimate office bearers”.
Mr Mutangili expressed fear for the safety of the executive committee members saying that they could quickly be hauled to court and jailed to pave way for a mega rip off.
“These politicians are too powerful and can use their influence to get us arrested, hurriedly charged and jailed to ensure their plans get through by all means”, he warned.
Investigations revealed that a Nairobi law-yer involved in the Malili ranch deal drove the complainants to the CID and was suspected that he authored the statements which they delivered to the police alleging corruption at the co-operative.
There was a storm last year when brokers infiltrated the negotiations between the di-rectors of Malili Ranching Company and the Government to serve as a go between in the sh1 billion deal. Although farmers were entitled to sh 1.4 million for the sale of 7.8 acres plot plus an additional 50 by 100 feet commercial plot, many of them ended being short changed earning as little as between sh400,000 and sh600,000 leaving brokers and speculators with a whooping sh1 million or at least sh800,000.
At the heart of the storm was a brokerage firm Gateway Logistics which was linked to high ranking politicians and which made a whooping sh40 million from the deal.
Thereafter, local powerful politicians entered the fray using another dubious firm and dislodged the deal from Gateway Logistics but not before grabbing another sh103 million from the deal.
To do this, the firm fronting for local politicians had the directors of the company Mr Peter Kanyi and Mr Julius Kilonzo arrested and hauled in court. They were immediately replaced by another team of directors that quickly oversaw the completion of the deal which has gone in record as one of the largest rip off witnessed in the ranching sector.
Konza ranchers fear that the same will replicated but only time will tell.
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