Community land is for communities, not “private developers”

Photo @Loboikaal Eloto

There is this tired fallacy that people in Kenya's rural lands hardly understand the complexities of governance and so, well-connected individuals and/or organizations from as far afield as Nairobi can have their way without much resistance from these rural folks. That this faulty thinking has penetrated into the very heart of government and NGO bodies is a big reason for all able-minded humans to not only side with justice but more principally, break their silence. For neutrality premised on indifference is an injustice to those crying out for our support. 

A few days ago something game-changing happened in Lokichar, Turkana County. Lodwar suspended the creation of wildlife conservancies within the county. Turkana leadership finally realized that a sin against the people had been committed and that action had to be taken lest the public unleashes its anger - through the ballot or otherwise. 

Prior to this decision, residents of Turkana South had been duped to believe that for socio-economic change to occur following the discovery of oil in the region, creating “community” wildlife conservancies would be inevitable. As a result, huge parcels of community lands were marked out as “community conservancies” under the stewardship of some unknown “conservationists”. What these faceless “conservationists” did not disclose was why their pet project only centered on lands under oil exploration.

Of course, we need not be super-humans to note that there is a love affair between (oil) land compensation billions and conversion of community lands to private properties under the cover of conservation initiatives.

Thankfully this is now dead, buried and forgotten!

The core of Lodwar’s change of mind is that times have changed; that authorities have been caught flat-footed; and that no layers of technical terms can dissuade rural people from defending what is rightfully theirs. Yes, their understanding of governance is “raw”, but it is that “rawness” that – for the case of Turkana residents – forced their leaders to speak loudly and publicly against land grabbing.

We all know that creating a nexus between resourcefulness (read oil), social fragility (ignorance) and land without invoking the power of the people is a dead move. And this is exactly what those faceless “conservationists” plus their local agents failed to grasp. They thought they would simply kick the local community out of the picture and proceed unchallenged.

But their attempts came a cropper – in a very spectacular way!

 

The greatest expressions of defence of public goodies are – no doubt – the thousands of children, women and men, most of whom have never had the privilege of stepping into any formal classroom to collectively stand tall and shout out, “No! We shall not allow land grabbing to happen in Turkana!” These brave souls are my heroes!

Guys, this is what keeps me hopeful. Through that collective appeal, I am convinced that albeit having fakes for leaders, citizens will directly act to safeguard their interests. And because fear is inherently a politician's ruthless enemy, these fakes will either have to transform themselves into real leaders and then carry on with their duties as required or they will be swept away, dumped and be replaced with sober ones. Then the people will win!

But power of the people minus courage and prudence translates not into “people power”. The overarching role of citizens to say “no” when their leaders point in the direction of Hell is what “people power” means. Not dilly-dallying with crooks and pooh-poohing when they finally complete what they know best – destroying a nation's social edifice, selling public land and sleeping with enemies of the public.

Yes, I commend the people of Turkana for their courage. But spending all days celebrating for one step sounds tasteless. It is one thing to kick out pro-conservancies groups, it is another thing to force leaders to detach themselves from these groups, and it is yet another thing to ensure that those groups plus leaders do not form another alliance to hoodwink the populace.

I would rather stop celebrating and focus my energies on ensuring that this deadly alliance doesn’t see the light of the day. This is what will ensure community lands remain what they really are, and ought to be – land for communities, not for “private developers”.

Twitter: @mlemukol.