Majimbo and All

Hi Bill (if I may),

I don't understand why you should tag me with strange labels. I am a proud Luo--yes; from Kwabwayi. I am proud to be a Kenyan also (my activities testify to that). I also carry the burden of being called that scary name Ramogi (born to wrestle with life). None of these attributes should turn me into a clan zealot tribalist. It only means that I have a keen sense of belonging. I tell people that "tribe" is not a dirty word; it is part of people's DNA, use it as a building block in your nation.

You have tagged me antiMAJIMBO. Anti is too strong a characterization. I feel that Kenya is too small an economic unit to majimbonize effectively. It also is too fragile a political fabric to fragment. Let me explain.

Kenya has remained relatively stable amidst gross misgovernance of the last quarter century because of God's Grace and Hand in the diversity of the ethnicities that comprise it. The same can be said of Tanzania, and even Uganda. No single tribe in Kenya can overcome the will of the rest. This fact has been employed by the past and current administrations. That is why going Majimbo is a problem to me.

Majimbo would create many centers of governance dominated by single tribes (Sounds like Moism?). The result will not be Kenya but a chaotic pre-colonial-like collection of kingdoms.

Secondly, because Kenya is a relatively small country (in size and population) with no mineral or oil resources, slicing it into eight or ten governerships does not make economic sense. Yes, it may improve delivery of services to the people, but this can be achieved without going Majimbo.

If you are as old as myself, you may remember a time when there were MoW road gangs responsible for every four-mile stretch of every road in Kenya. That was service delivery. What happened to MOW? What happened to roads? The problem is not lack of MAJIMBO. It is a fatal failure of the state. It is about corruption. It may be about tribalism. But Majibo will not cure any of that (Look at Nigeria).

Now the Dominion Farm thing.

I want to agree with you that modern agricultural methods can improve farm productivity. Some commodities such as Corn and Sugar (sugarcane) require large tracts of land to farm as viable economic units. They also require the right weather conditions.

How do you get large tracts of land?

The Delamares of colonial Kenya benefited from the muscle of the mother colonial power to get the large tracts of land they farmed. They have since independence gained from the stability of the multiethnic unitary government. If Kenya were Majimbo, the Delamares wouldn't have survived postcolonial Kenya. Believe me.

Now, in the present day Luo Nyanza where land pressure is great, how do you get large tracts of land to create another Yala Swamp or Awendo Sugar? The best way is to form cooperatives. This second method can work through infusion of local banking facilities to the locals. It worked before. It failed in some cases because of marketing problems. If the private investor like Dominion wants to assure the local cooperatives of their extensive worldwide marketing/export services then they are welcome.

The second way is to buy off the individual villagers from the land. (The Government and the local politicians will have to be behind such a scheme).

This option of buying off locals from their land may be the more attractive option for a foreign investor in modern postcolonial times. But it carries a big risk under the murky land laws of Kenya that are a cocktail of traditional as well as modern civic laws. Any child born after the land deal between the buyer and the seller has the constitutional right to challenge the buy off. When such a challenge fails, the little man is going to wield his small spear.

Now, that kind of confrontation on CNN will not be good for a foreign investor. Apart form weather-related risks anything touching on land ownership is a big risk in Kenya.

Bill (if I may) you must have guessed where I am leading to: Dominion Farms, the unit whose bananas I buy at 60 cents a pound, is capable of buying off all the villagers in Kwabwayi West location or Yala Basin. They don't need our dollars, neither would they have needed us under normal circumstances. Why do they want you and I to join their Lake Basin investment?

1) To Spread the investment risk (I am no economist and may not have articulated this well). Now, most companies do offer shares to the public, but only after they are mature. Dominion (Yala) is doing it too early. Therefore, spreading the risk is not the principal reason why they need you and I.

2) To Put a Local Face to the scheme. This is being politically smart. Most of us may not read it my way. But there was a man, a Nandi man who used to be the chairman of Lonrho East (Kenya). He didn't have the best of qualifications, but was the chairman by virtue of being well connected, and more importantly, he was the local Nandi face to Lonrho's operations in the North Rift.

Joseph R. Alila (Author: Thirteen Curse on Mother Africa)