I own no real estate in Africa...
Why?
The protection, offered by the law, of one's property in Africa is almost non-existent. If the laws are there, the courts or enforcers are lazy, corrupt, powerless or do not care.
Kenya is an example where kamau wa ngengi (aka jomo "land-grabber' kenyatta) and his family acquired huge chunks of the best land through theft. Many of the victims were law-abiding citizens who had bought their land. kamau who became senile in the early 70s still dreamed of acquiring more land even in his senility.
Zimbabwe is another example where for all the inequities, there were many who lost their land. Of course, the land was 'taken' to benefit the majority but given to mugabe's whores & cronies. Senile is too kind a word for mugabe. Why don't the Zimbabweans just assasinate him?
Tanzania nationalised the farms to catastrophic results.
Uganda's idi 'idiot' amin kicked out the Ugandan Asians, grabbed their properties without due process and coz he had some dream that he had.
Rwanda saw bloodshed with over 1mn deaths. All for 'land'.
Kenya has had land clashes over the years but it reached new heights in early 2008.
Anyway, I was watching a video on KenyanEntrepreneur's site... the house was being demolished... and it sorta explains why I rent...
3 comments:
One of my best friends used to help people get issues sorted out at the ministries of land and he told me from what he had seen from the inner workings at the ministry and the weak land laws we had, he said he would only encourage someone with a stomach of steal to enter the real estate business because even keeping your own land from those who want to take it from you is a plight and a half.
Do you know that you can bribe and have someone make you a legit title deed for a piece of land someone else owns? Scary very scary.
Aco: No wonder there are numerous cases in court over title deeds... the 'real' deedholders get screwed.
Until Orengo, there has been resistance to changeover to an electronic system since the corrupt 'rulers' - starting with kenyatta - loved the current system!
another real estate cautionary tale (http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?mnu=details&id=1143993523&catid=470)
Post a Comment