January 2012: NEMA 's nod to Konza Ranch

A License at last to

split Konza Ranch
By Martin Masai

Members of Konza Ranch at a past AGM

KONZA Ranch  has finally received a license to subdivide the giant Konza Ranch.
Its is the outcome of a long protracted battle for the license that the members have aged between themselves on the one hand and a bunch of greedy politicians on the other, who have been secretly  frustrating efforts to share up the ranch until their hirelings are in office.

The National Environment Management Au­thority handed over the license to Konza Chairman  Mr David Mutangili and listed some stringent over 20 conditions  to be followed that are ordinarily procedural. However they 1594 members of the society will have to wait for a license to subdivide the farm at Kiima Kiu, since the license at hand was for the Konza portion of the farm.
Konza officials have launched documents re­quired for a license for the Kiu farm. The Anchor established that it is just a matter of time before Nema issues a license for the sub­di­vision of the Kiu Ranch.
The move is victory for farmers who want the farm split so that each of them can decide to sell or share the land to their off spring. The move to share out the land was triggered by the split of Malili Ranch whose sale has created overnight millionaires in Machakos and kicked off massive growth in Machakos municipality
The Konza license was precipitated by an approval granted earlier after farmers mounted immense pressure on Nema after indications appeared that the organization was not keen to grant it
 It is the latest step in the unstoppable march by the Ranch owners towards owning in­di­vidual land parcels that they can sell and reap the benefits of their investment of many years.
By giving the license, NEMA must have been acting to pre-empt a previously planned march to State House that the farmers were planning to demand audience with President Mwai Kibaki and later to the Prime Minister’s Office for a face off with Mr Raila Odinga.
Among the conditions in the license is a re­quirement that the Ranch management agree to a plan with KWS determining the fate of wildlife living in the ranch that is already blockaded by subdivision of other ranches within the area. They also have to map out details of public utility land to be reposed with the County Council of Makueni and water in­fra­struc­ture already existing within the ranch.
When licenses for both farms are finally granted, the society will divide 22,000 acres of its Konza and Kima farms to 1,590 members. Each is expected to own over 10 acres of ag­ri­cul­ture land and two acre commercial plots. The conditions also prohibit further sub­di­vision of the land to units smaller that the authorized acreage.
The prime land which is 50 kilometers south of Nairobi along the Mombasa highway has attracted many interested investors in­cluding the government which intents to put up an airport in the area.
Recently, VP Kalonzo said in Machakos that the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, Boeing of the US was looking for land in the area to establish their Africa operations.
Konza farmers want to be the people selling the land to investors and not go-betweens who have been seeking to jail some ranch officials and gain access to the ranch through proxies as was the case with Malili Ranch. “We are urging our members not to sell their shares right away as there are better things to come and they stand to benefit more for their patience,” Mr Mutangili said upon re­ceiving the license
 The land which is adjacent to the proposed Konza ICT techno-city( formerly Malili Ranch) has also seen a mad-rush for property in the area which has forced prices to rise as­tro­nomically.