The solution to this problem will require taking drastic action to redistribute land across the region, ignoring claims to sanctity of land titles by corrupt elites.
Justice in land ownership within countries will also lead to greater confidence that will allow the opening up of ownership to citizens of other sister states.
The region can no longer bury its head in the sand. Land is a major cause of conflict, and was perhaps the major grievance by many Kenyan communities in the post-election violence that rocked the country in 2007-2008. Since then, these grievances have continued to simmer, waiting for another opportune time to erupt.
Land grievances in the region go back to the colonial period, when many communities were forced out of their land to give way to white settlers.
This was especially true of Kenya, where the Kikuyu, the Maasai and other ethnic groups suffered immensely. This is what formed the war waged by the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, popularly known as the Mau Mau in the 1950s.
When freedom was finally won in Kenya, the British handed over power to Jomo Kenyatta, who went ahead to ignore the Mau Mau and their contribution. The new elite was largely made up of the families of home guards and traitors, who then embarked on a land-grabbing spree.
The irregular acquisition of large parcels of public land by individuals who abused their privileged positions, which was most rampant in Kenya but also found elsewhere, went on for many years. These corrupt transactions have thereafter been protected and sanitized by the so-called sanctity of title deeds.
What such distorted minds fail to grasp is that the title deed is a western concept that did not exist in traditional land ownership patterns, in which this vital resource was communally owned.
To dispossess people and make them destitute on the basis of title deeds, while at the same time sanctioning injustice in the distribution of land simply because the new owners have corruptly acquired that vital piece of paper, is to treat the people with contempt and court trouble.
Indeed, the sanctity of ownership of private property can never be extended to illegally acquired wealth. Increasingly, governments around the world are demanding the repatriation of the proceeds of crime hidden in tax havens back to the rightful owners, who are invariably poor taxpayers in developing countries.
That principle, that illegally acquired wealth must revert to its owners, needs to be applied more universally to other forms of wealth beyond finances.
When it comes to land, no investigation involving overseas accounts is necessary. The evidence is all here in East Africa. Vast tracts of land remain in the hands of the region’s leading political and business families, land that was no doubt allocated to them at throwaway prices. This land needs to revert back to the state for proper planning and fair reallocation.
Of course, there are developments that may have been undertaken on much of this land. At the same time, the owners have over the years repaid themselves through using land that should never have belonged to them in the first place. This problem can be resolved by determining a maximum land acreage, say 100 acres, that these land grabbers will be allocated.
Those who have already sold their land must be pursued and surcharged the equivalent values of the land that they ought to surrender, at current rates.
But it is not only the post-independence African elite who are guilty of abetting this injustice. Fifty years after independence, huge portions of prime land remain in the hands of the descendants of settlers who acquired it for free through dispossessing the original owners.
Recently, Kenyans have been treated to a charade of arguments whether landowners such as the Del Monte firm should have their leases renewed. It is a sign of the total absence of wisdom among leaders that such a debate should even be considered. Clearly, such land ought to be immediately repossessed and used to pursue the development interests of the local population.
The growing inequality between the haves and have-nots in East Africa is spawning the growing insecurity and other social evils. It is no secret that most of the super-rich who flaunt their wealth during election campaigns acquired it illegally.
Since land is an immovable asset whose records are easily retrievable, this is a good starting point in the search for justice. The alternative, as Kenya found out in 2007-2008, can be quite nasty.
EANA
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