Former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi is said to have amassed a personal fortune worth around $1 billion during his presidency. One of his assets is said to be the Kiptagich Tea Factory in the Mau Forest (he claims he only owns a one-quarter share), one of many large tracts of land in the Mau Forest that was illegally allocated when he was president. Unfortunately for Kenya, the Mau Forest is the country’s main water catchment, and the destruction of the Mau Forest is having a serious effect on the country’s rivers, lakes, hydro-electric power and water supply.
Mr Moi says that he was given the land by the Narok County Council some twenty years ago. He says that he did not use his position as head of state to grab the land. He says that the Maasai gave him the land as a way of conserving the Mau Complex by stopping encroachers and that land neighbouring various water towers was allocated to various individuals to act as buffer zones. He did not explain exactly how the Mau Complex could be “conserved” by clearing the land and creating a tea farm.
Perhaps there is a fine line between free-will gifts and compulsory gifts received by the head of state in a single-party country. Perhaps it was thought that a corrupt allocation of land to the president would help smooth the way for corrupt allocations of land to numerous other individuals. There does not seem to have been much thought given to the impropriety of a person holding political office receiving a gift. Now Kenya is faced with the very difficult task of trying to evict the Mau Forest encroachers including the former president.