Konza society mulls over its success
in historic sub-division of
ranch
MEMBERS of the giant Konza Ranching Co-operative society are
thrilled by the success already achieved in sub-di-viding and sharing out the
ranches’ 22,000 acres of land.
During their 47th Annual Gen-eral Meeting, the
farmers were briefed on the progress of the historic exercise and unani-mously
endorsed contents of a report presented by the Society’s Chairman of the Board
of Directors Mr David Mutangili.
They then proceeded to en-dorse virtually all resolutions
that he sought from them, a move that manifested deep faith in his leadership.
Even then there was a dramatic twist that saw the elevation to the Board of
Directors of a former Farm Manager- Danson Mbubi who had been expelled from the
ranch together with a former chairman Paul Mbole.
Both Mbubi and Mbole were recently reinstated to the ranch
and com-pen-sated handsomely as part of a settlement that paved way to the
balloting for the land. He took the place of a cheeky director Mr Muthembwa who
was ejected from the committee for acts deed not befitting a director.
The members approved the sale of excess parcels of land that
were excised beyond their 1595 membership. Other items like fencing posts,
barbed wire, livestock and plots were also approved to be sold to raise the
nearly Sh 70m required to settle all outstanding debts. The debts include
survey and legal fees, among others.
The AGM was told that there was double allocation for close
to 50 parcels of land but a remedy had been designed to sort the matter. They
approved power to the management committee to conclude the matter in one month
and possibly ballot for members who are yet to vote and pick their parcel
numbers.
Mr Mutangili took the members through a raft of issues and
easily obtained endorsement for every resolution the committee needed to conclude
the matter.
He explained that plans were in place transform the ranch
into a Dairy Farmers Society. It will
continue with milk pro-duction using the ranching infrastructure of Konza that
had been left intact after the subdivision. “ We want to utilize the dips, dams
and water supply in the ranch for farming pur-poses”, he said
Mutangili said some
of the member who did not turn up for the balloting are deceased and their
families have to sit down and agree who is to administer the deceased’s property.
Each member has been allocated 10.8 acres of agricultural
land and 2.acres of commer-cial plots. Prior to the sub division, powerful
forces were bent on blocking the exercise. “This is what caused the delay in
getting authorization,” he said. The world’s largest aircraft manufacturer,
Boeing from the US, has expressed interest in setting up its Africa operations
in the area.
Meanwhile, the society gave the CID director fourteen days
to release the society’s records which had been confined in his office.
The members said the society’s smooth running had been
hampered by the lack of the records which were taken away by the CID officers
more than a year ago. The members observed that since there was no pending case
in court against the society the files should have been released long time ago
for smooth running of the society.
Mr Mutangili however, said that despite the inconvenience
caused by the seizure of the office records by the CIDs, efforts had been made
to finalize the sub division and allocation of the land. He said possi-bly the
Title Deeds would be ready after six months. The members returned to office two
of the management committee officials whose tenure in office had elapsed.
