The Anchor January 2012

Editorial Comment

Thieves of Malili farmers'

millions must be probed

THE emerging facts about Malili Ranching now require that a fresh attention be created on the circumstances that followed after the State set aside Sh 1billion to buy 5,000 acres of land of the ranch to construct an ICT City then known as The Malili Technopolis.

As the deal materialised, a group of directors bought land from shareholders at low prices and lay in wait till the cash was released by the government. The  parcels of land measuring 7.8 acres at the same sold for as low as Sh 200,000. Desperate farmers thought they were being done favours when specu­lators doled out cash to them. It is believed that some of the directors bought over 100 pieces from unsuspecting shareholders

When the cash was released, the speculators went to Malili Ranch and tabled documents showing that they were owners of the purchased parcels. By this time each piece was going for Sh 1.4 million. From this, they were paid millions of shillings. In the initial payments, Malili Directors pledged to pay Gateway Logistics some Sh 100m, for allegedly some agency fee for facilitating sale of the land. For this Gateway was paid an initial Sh 40m and told to await the rest after the whole amount was paid.

It is as Gateway pursued its remaining share of Sh 6om that some more sticky fingers- including both politicians and activists got interested in the deal and positioned them to begin looting from Malili farmers.

By this time, Josiah Munuka, the Malili Chairman who did the initial transactions laid dead  The players sought Mr Kanyi, Munuka’s successor to push for the other payment. Kanyi refused to pay a cent . A number of proposals were laid out to him, increasing the alleged commission and how it was to be dis­trib­uted- complete with bank accounts for law­yers who were privy to the transactions.

Kanyi refused to pay and went on to pay up farmers at Sh 1.4 for each of their parcels of land. But as this went on, he, together with Mr John Kilonzo, then Treasurer of Malili Ranch, was summoned to CID headquarters and recorded a statement on alle­gations that he had stolen money, allegedly from the offices of Malili lawyer Mr Erick Mutua  at View Park Towers in Nairobi.Kanyi and Co were soon arraigned in court and  effec­tively removed from the helmsman ship of Malili.

Mr Kanyi and Mr Kilonzo were alleged to have stolen Sh143 million meant to compensate owners of the 5,000 acres ranch bought by the government for Sh1 billion to develop the Malili ICT park, later re-named Konza ICT City in an attempt to white wash the stinking scandal. Evidence adduced in court shows that the cash they were paid was their entitlement as pro­ceeds of the sale of the plots they had bought from members.

To this day, there has not been known action taken even after the trial magistrate ordered that the judgement be taken to the Commissioner of Police for further action.

By this time, 112 members had been paid Sh 1.4m for each of their plots. Kanyi’s handpicked successors at Malili decided to hive off Sh 300,000 from the Sh 1.4m due to each parcel belonging to over 400 members who had not been paid by the time Kanya was ousted.The successors-  led by Mr David Ngilai were hand picked by a Member of Parliament and a political activist from Makueni who at the time served as Personal Assistant to the Vice President.

At the height of this drama, City Lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo made a public statement that he was returning some part of Malili millions that he had kept for reasons he never divulged to the owners of the cash. To whom he returned the cash is still unclear. Mr Waiganjo is nevertheless a member of the Charles Nyachae led Constitution Imple­men­tation Commission(CIC).

There has been no explanation whatsoever why this amount – a cool Sh 300,000- was hived from farmers’ dues at Malili and it is frightening  that this matter is not being pursued at all. If anything, this is money that has been stolen in broad daylight under the watch of police, the political leadership of Ukambani who comprise the  strange hands in the Malili Saga.

As this progressed, Directors of the neighbouring Konza Ranch  were hauled to the CID in similar circumstances and the players are the very same. It  seems that they thieves tried in vain the very same tricks at Konza and succeed in stealing from the poor ordinary citizen who invested long before the thieves were born in the hope of benefitting their children many years later.

It is unfathomable that white-colour theft is taking place in Ukambani  at this point in history. It is horrifying that Akamba leadership- save for Mrs Charity Ngilu- is quiet over this matter and it seems that a conspiracy to steal from peasants is deep-rooted in its very leadership. Besides, it is tragic that the CID is being used to steal from citizens, rather than defend them.

If the events and evidence in the just thrown out Kanyi case is anything to go by, then citizens ought to device another mode of protecting their properties and not rely on police or their leaders any further.

Clearly, the Malili saga must be probed afresh , millions stolen from citizens returned, culprits prosecuted and politicians involved exposed to ensure they will never be elected to run public affairs anywhere in the Republic of Kenya.