We are monsters

This is not a fact but a sense of what I believe must have made it easier to turn men into monsters. European "explorers" saw themselves in a romantic light as adventurers off to discover new, savage lands, and to pacify them for King, Queen or Country. Kenya commemorates one such explorer in Malindi: the Vasco Da Gama pillar is proof that the great Portuguese explorer made landfall on Kenya's coast.

Some of those European explorers settled in what would eventually become Kenya. Their descendants are living off the "investments" made by them in land, businesses and the like. But it is in land that the legacy of European settlement and colonialism in Kenya that Kenyans experience the most impact. Some of those settlers took native brides and many of their children are the most ardent supporters of the status quo that prevails in Kenya today over land.

Land defines Kenyans in every way. It is the foundation for Kenyans' most intractable quarrels. It is the basis for political organisation. It is the foundation of the great wealth held by church and church-affiliated organisations. It separates the ordinary Kenyan from his political leaders. It defines success or failure in business. It is the basis for violence between ethnic communities, such as what is happening in the "border" between Meru and Isiolo. Yet any discussion around land simply covers up the fact that much of it is held by settlers' descendants and that their apologists have every interest in keeping the discussion from exploring what benefits may be had if this land is redistributed among the landless and the land hungry.

There are Kenyans who have murdered fellow Kenyans because of land, sometimes in political quarrels over which they had no control, sometimes because it was a vital part in their business successes and ;sometimes because they were keeping a family tradition alive of murdering native Kenyans for their land. The beneficiaries of [colonial land policies include church and church-affiliated organisations; after all, the Catholic Church in Kenya or the Anglican Church would not be such substantial landowners if it wasn't for the favourable land policies of the colonial government towards their land ownership at the expense of native Kenyans.

Since Independence, land has been the constant element in all our problems. It has been the weapon that the post-colonial colonialist apologists have used to divide and rule us. It has been used to entice us to feats of great cruelty. Yet it remains cruelly misunderstood even by the neo-colonialists among us. This misunderstanding means that it is easy to misdirect Kenyans to concentrating on everything else other than land in understanding why their country remains underdeveloped, fifty years after independence whereas other similar countries are powering ahead. We are monsters because we do not understand our land history and we will remain monsters unless we do.