A 66,000 acres farm owned by Giriama Ranching Company, home to 40 000 people; half of a location in Kilifi County is set to be Auctioned to recover Sh258 million loan.
According to the papers the loan was part of a larger loan, Sh304 million lent to Riva Oils Limited, a company associated with former Labour Cabinet Secretary Samuel Kazungu Kambi.
This is small change compared to all that money stolen right and left. Surely. Perhaps they need state intervention, can we really afford 40,000 people join the slum dwellings.
If the land is sold it will bring to an end continual occupation by the families over hundreds of years.
The report further says,[COLOR=rgb(209, 72, 65)]” Locals claim the, politician fraudulently used a provisional title deed from Giriama Ranching Company Limited to acquire the loan, repaid some of the money but defaulted on Sh258 million, forcing the bank to go for the land listed as the guarantor”.
It is a high time a lifestyle audit was conducted on the former cabinet secretary and associates to establish if they converted the money into their own asset, leaving the unsuspecting citizen the burden of debt - Asset recovery to clear the debt.
So who owns the land? Is it public land or private? If its public then something needs to be done about it but if its private then kila mtu apambane na hali yake.
The land could be communal or owned by shareholders. Then Kazungu Kambi, a form 2 drop out, the most learned person in his village decides to take a loan with title deed of the community. They entrust him as the chair of the company because ‘ni mtu wetu’. Note that there is no moral hazard. If the boat sinks, guy has nothing to lose.
This scam has been repeated many times in Kenya but may be I’m wrong on how they wound up in this problem.
Land at a bargain. This is the best thing to happen to these people. If the 40,000 people each remove 10,000 ksh, they will raise Ksh 400 million. They can pay off and buy the land and split it amongst themselves. And have change to spare.