Multinationals stare at bleak future as governors scramble for land

Kandara Residents Association Chairman Philip Kamau briefs members at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on November 6, 2018 after a meeting Del Monte over its land lease.

At least five governors are entangled in a heated war with multinational companies over the fate of land whose leases are expiring.

In the name of securing community interest, some of the county chiefs have presented a host of demands before any lease renewals can be undertaken, others rejecting the idea altogether amid accusations of brinkmanship and underhand boardroom dealings.

While they are keen to wrest ownership from the big companies, it is their hope the concerted bargain will see the regions that lost their ancestral land, annexed during colonisation, get it all back or at least part of it.

The new battlefront is said to have attracted the attention of President Uhuru Kenyatta with reports that some of the embassies may have sought his intervention.

For some of the governors, land has become a negotiating tool for future political survival.