Former presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot has waded into the land ownership row pitting Murang’a county against Del Monte Kenya.
He wants the firm denied lease renewal. The Murang’a government is already in the Court of Appeal opposing the renewal in what it calls the public interest. Residents accuse Del Monte of doing little to improve their lives. According the lease papers, the lease of two parcels will expire this year and the rest in 2022. The company holds 21,000 acres in Murang’a. Last year, Kiambu county renewed the firm’s lease.
Yesterday, Aukot met Murang’a residents and appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to stop plans to renew Del Monte’s a lease. He said Kenya has not got value for money from the parcels. The Thirdway Alliance boss argued that arbitrary renewal of long land leases is illegal and perpetuates historical injustices. Del Monte has been occupying the Sh900 billion land that stretches from Blue Post Hotel to Kenol for 39 years.
“Del Monte has been leasing all that land for a paltry Sh12,000 an acre. This simply beats logic because the adjacent land is sold at Sh4 million for an eighth of an acre,” Aukot said.
Not only have the people of Murang’a lost in real revenue, but so has the government of Kenya in actual taxes, he said. Aukot also said the law bans automatic renewal if the developer is a foreign entity or if the county government has shown interest.
Human rights crusader Peter Njoroge accused the firm of polluting the environment and doing little to improve infrastructure.