Our Land Reform Process Has Failed

THE unfortunate situation that has arisen in the Nyae-Nyae Conservancy as a result of the incursion of cattle farmers from Gam needs to be handled with utmost circumspection by the Government and in accordance with the rule of law.

But what it has also clearly shown is the failure of our land reform process, and we need to both view the events in Nyae-Nyae against this background, as well as demand serious evaluation of land redistribution. So-called land reform is after all, benefiting the haves rather than the have-nots, and the way things are at present has certainly not benefiting agricultural production in this country in particular or our economy in general.Some weeks after the cutting of the veterinary fence and subsequent invasion of the protected area by the farmers, Government sent a high-level delegation to assess the situation. Led by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication, the delegation has compiled a report for Cabinet in which it apparently recommended a quick decision on the matter which would send a strong message to the ‘invaders’ and also to address the concerns of the parties involved.Some of the recommendations to Cabinet included that the cattle be destroyed and that their owners be given ‘minimal compensation’ in order to deter future actions of the same kind, and to also send a strong message that disregard for the Veterinary Cordon Fence is a ‘serious offence’.There are a number of issues at stake here, and we would call upon Government, even though it is an election year, not to politicise the issue, but while sending a necessarily strong message to the invaders, they must also look at the circumstances which gave rise to the incursion.It is clear that an unequivocal message be sent to the farmers in question. If not, then this is likely to happen again. It is clearly not acceptable that anyone breaks the laws to achieve their goals, and so the action of the farmers in question cannot be supported. The San are clearly a marginalised people and need to be protected in their areas. Added to this is the fact that considerable cost is involved in repairing the fence as well as in the efforts to resolve the impasse at present and someone needs to pay for it.And even though the farmers’ action is clearly unacceptable, we need to ask ourselves why those who make a living of farming, in communal areas or otherwise, cannot be relocated to the ‘commercial’ farming areas in order to sustain themselves and their families, but also to increase our country’s agricultural production, and thereby pay taxes into our State coffers.What needs to be done is a proper assessment of those formerly productive commercial farms which have been given out, under the affirmative action scheme, to those who are not farmers by trade, but who clearly have political connections to get those farms in the first place.We would pose the question as to whether there is any Government Minister, or MP for that matter, who does not own a farm? It is likely that there would be few, if any. And most of these are ‘cheque-book’ farmers who have employment in Government or elsewhere, and at the same time use these formerly productive farms for weekend jaunts and hunting trips only.What were formerly farms beneficial to the country’s economy are now weekend retreats for the elite.We would also ask how many of those former productive farms in what was known as the ‘maize triangle’, a former breadbasket of this country, continue to be as such?It is clear, therefore, that people like the Gam farmers could have been accommodated rather than the political elite who don’t know how to farm anyway, and this is where our land reform process, as it is called, has fallen down.Race no longer plays the pivotal role it once did in the land reform process. Neither should it. We now need to clearly look at the issue of productivity and whether those who are on commercial farms are in fact benefiting the country’s agricultural sector, and thereby the economy, through successful farming methods. Our political elite who own farms are clearly not contributing.Those who are not productive should not have access to land and farms at the expense of those who are farmers and would utilise the land to contribute to a thriving agricultural sector. The Nyae-Nyae situation should wake us up before it is too late to ensure that our agricultural sector does not collapse completely in the future.