As scores of landowners seek to be allowed to turn their agricultural land into real estate, Lands officials here say they cannot deny them approval since there is no policy to regulate change of use, writes ERIC WAINAINA
Kiambu Lands office is in a dilemma over what to do with the rising number of individuals and organisations seeking to change the use of large chunks of land in their ownership from agricultural to commercial use.
A large number of tea, coffee and milk producers want to be allowed to put up real estate developments on such land. But Lands officials, sometimes, find it difficult to control the mad-rush to change use because of inadequate laws.
John Kamau, the Kiambu District Lands Administration Officer, says they receive at least five applications per week from people wishing to change land use from agricultural to commercial. Most applicants, he said, are people with small parcels of lands.
He, however, says even those with huge chunks have been applying for change of user, although some have been turned down.
Last year, he says, a large-scale tea, coffee and milk producer applied seeking to change a coffee farm in Kiambu into commercial use, but they denied approval.
Mbo-I-Kamiti Company, which owns huge chunks of land, which were previously coffee estates, too, had applied for change of use.
“They were not successful because the land, measuring hundreds of acres, had some legal issues. Many people have applied for change of land use and we approve them because we do not have a policy to regulate this process,” says Kamau.
Policy vacuum
According to Kamau, a policy to regulate change of use that would have controlled the situation is in the process of formulation but has not been finalised.
“There is nothing we can do because any time we decline to assent to applications for change of use, the applicants demand we quote the law in question. Note that farmers no longer have to seek permission from the Government to uproot coffee after the industry was liberalised some years back,” he told Home and Away.
Kiambu, previously an agricultural zone, has become the destination of choice for real estate investors seeking to cash in on the high-end housing demand in Nairobi and its environs.
As a result, tea, coffee and milk farming, which were the main source of income in this area, are being abandoned. In their place have come up expensive lifestyle apartments and modern mansions.
Farmers have been uprooting coffee, once the biggest economic crop, to set up rental flats, which they say fetch huge returns.
Multi-billion estates
Multi-billion real estate projects are coming up, uprooting acreages of coffee bushes, which they say are no longer profitable.
They include Tatu City in Ruiru, Migaa and Edenville on the outskirts of Kiambu town. Acres of coffee bushes were uprooted to pave way for these projects.
People with small parcels of land are either changing use to allow them construct rental flats, or are taking advantage of the increased land prices to sell them to people who want to put up palatial homes.
The areas mostly affected are Kiambu, Thika, Kikuyu, Ruiru, Juja and parts of Githunguri districts where construction activities have been taking place each day.
Landowners in these areas have been thronging to the area lands offices seeking to change use.
Kiambu Road, starting from Runda to Kiambu town, previously a stretch of coffee plantation, is now dominated by palatial homes and estates.
For instance, EdenVille, a premier gated community on the outskirts of Kiambu town, sits on 149.5 acres, which were previously a coffee and maize plantation. Others include Tatu City and Migaa. Land where Tatu City and Migaa projects stand were previously coffee estates.
Silvester Ngamau, a property agent, said the collapse of the coffee sector in the yesteryears frustrated most farmers who have now decided to go into the high paying housing sector.
“Someone with half-an-acre piece of land would rather have a block of flats on it. A coffee farm gets return once a year, but with a rental flat, he is sure of getting good money at the end of every month,” says Ngamau.
Ngamau, the director of Zoom Real, a property agent with interests in Kiambu County, adds that many people in those areas have sub-divided their farms into small plots that are not feasible for farming.
