Absentee landlords and open spaces that remain unoccupied for long have become fertile ground for invasions by herders, fuelling conflict in Laikipia County, the Nation can reveal.
Though a potent mix of bad politics, land grievances, recurring droughts, ethnicity and historical land injustices have been blamed for the recent violence in the region, absentee landlords have also contributed to the conflict.
Investigations by the Nation have revealed that in Laikipia North and West, dozens of land owners have left huge tracts of land to lie fallow for years, making them attractive to invaders.
In Laikipia West, for instance, several parcels of land on the outskirts of Rumuruti town, and parts of Ol Moran have been abandoned by owners and remain idle, years after they acquired them. The Nation established at least 40,000 hectares of land in Laikipia West alone have been lying idle, and illegal grazers have invaded them.
"Absentee landlords is a major factor that contributes to the conflict in the Laikipia plains. The unoccupied parcels of land owned by absentee landlords are a heady temptation for pastoralists in search of open spaces. That attracts invaders," Mr John Kariuki, an expert on land matters, told the Nation.
Laikipia North Member of Parliament Sarah Korere also admitted that absentee landlords are a major cause of conflicts in Laikipia County.
"The government should compulsorily acquire these vast lands and pay back the owners, then take them over and resettle those people who are already settled there and have nowhere else to go," added the MP.
Well-coordinated conflict
Rift Valley Council of Elders patron Gilbert Kabage has also been advocating development of idle land.
"The owners of idle land should come back to Laikipia and develop their land. This region will be fully developed and properly planned if absentee landlords take over their property,” said Mr Kabage.
According to Rift Valley Regional Coordinator George Natembeya, the conflict in Laikipia is part of a bigger plan of creating insecurity and evicting legal landowners from the area.
Mr Natembeya said communities had been duped that the evictions would expand their territories, yet the beneficiaries would be several individuals.
He described the situation as a well-coordinated conflict by some leaders he did not name, who were interested in taking over the land and setting up ranches once the owners leave the area.
"There are vast pieces of land, conservancies and ranches in Nagum area for instance, where landowners were evicted in 2013 and they have never returned. There is a conspiracy by communities who have been fighting previously to gang up and take over private land,” he said.
The regional administrator said the government was fighting with the people behind the bandits and morans who wanted to push people out of their land.
Laikipia is inhabited by both farmers and pastoralists who occupy its North, East and West constituencies. Most of the conflict happens in Laikipia North, but it frequently extends to the West and the East.
The county borders the pastoralist counties of Baringo, Samburu and Isiolo, where farmers own large herds of cattle. The herders perceive a lot of land owned by the ranchers as being idle.
Laikipia County has a total of 48 large scale ranches representing 40 percent of the total land in Laikipia County.
The invasions of land and protected private property in the county, which sometimes snowball into a series of bandit attacks in which lives are lost, happen nearly every year, but are worse during electioneering.
Farms owned by the prominent people range from “small parcels” measuring 5,000 acres to seemingly endless massive lands covering more than 200,000 acres.
Majority of the vast lands are wildlife sanctuaries, making Laikipia Kenya's richest county in terms of biodiversity of large mammals.
Invasions by thousands of nomadic herders from Samburu, Baringo, Isiolo, Turkana and West Pokot, armed with automatic rifles and driving in hundreds of their cattle over the past years have left a trail of destruction in Laikipia.
Emboldened by the narrative of historical land injustices, the invaders have killed residents and wildlife, including elephants, lions, buffalos, giraffes and zebras, as well as domestic dogs.
In the past three weeks, banditry attacks have rocked Ol Moran, in Laikipia West and its environs, where at least 10 people were killed and hundreds displaced.
However, deployment of more security officers to the region and an operation that is under way, have seen the return of calm, a week after Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i toured the area.
Last week, Central Kenya governors asked the government to allocate more funds for development in Laikipia to end insecurity in the region.
The governors Francis Kimemia (Nyandarua), Muthomi Njuki (Tharaka Nithi), Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga), Mwangi Wairia (Murang'a), James Nyoro (Kiambu), Kiraitu Murungi (Meru), Mutahi Kahiga (Nyeri), Martin Wambora (Embu) and Lee Kinyanjui (Nakuru), in a statement to newsrooms, said the best way for the government to get rid of banditry attacks in Laikipia is by channelling more funds to its growth.
"While we applaud the national government for the quick response in stopping the Laikipia violence, we call on ministries, agencies, and departments to accelerate their support capacity and allocate more development funds to end banditry in the region,” read the statement signed by Mr Kimemia, who is also the Central Region Economic Bloc chairman.
The government should pump more funds into the road network, dams, and putting up more schools and health facilities, to end banditry and cattle rustling.
The leaders further said the banditry attacks and associated acts of lawlessness were geared towards displacement of citizens, voter suppression and manipulation of electoral processes through heinous acts of destruction, and fomenting of fear and anxiety.
"It is critical that the leaders across the various communities at all levels who are found to have a role in the incitement and perpetuation of violence must face the full force of the law, notwithstanding their political standing or affiliation. We call on the government to redouble its efforts to ensure normality resumes,” read part of statement.
The county bosses have further recommended the strengthening of community policing in the region, deployment of more Kenya Police Reservists, containment of illegal firearms through a disarmament programme and introduction of a proper pasture management programme.
Leaders have recommended that any recovery plan for the region should involve a massive lifestyle shift, including provision of formal education for children to as a means to escape the pastoralist lifestyle.
"It must also include the building of roads, hospitals, water boreholes and livestock markets," said Mr Kinyanjui.
