Idle Government Land To Be Reclaimed In Food Plan

Parastatals, schools and prisons will be forced to hand over idle land to private investors as government moves to spark up agriculture.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Nominee Mithika Linturi says parastatals with idle land will be forced to surrender them for hire on contract to private investors for commercial agriculture, should Parliament clear his appointment.

Mr. Linturi told MPs that he will fast-track the implementation of a Cabinet resolution requiring State-owned institutions, including universities, to release idle land for the production of food to create new jobs.

The Cabinet in May, sitting under the chairmanship of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, approved the seizure of idle land in efforts to boost food security and reduce the cost of living.

“If approved for appointment, I will quickly implement the Cabinet directive that parastatals with idle land release them for onward leasing to private individuals for production of food,” Mr Linturi told the vetting panel.

Food prices have rallied in recent months on poor weather and global supply disruptions in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has delivered costly wheat and cooking oil.

The Cabinet resolution seeks to implement a model where thousands of acres of public land will be leased to private investors for food and cash crop production through irrigation.

Some of the parastatals holding vast but idle land are the Kenya Railways, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, the East African Portland Cement, Kenya Prisons, and the University of Nairobi.

The government has in the past failed in attempts to revive large-scale agricultural production with projects such as the Galana Kulalu irrigation scheme.

The Galana/Kulalu Food Security Project was started in 2015 with the intention of opening up more than 1.2 million acres of land belonging to the Agricultural Development Corporation to irrigation.

Mr Linturi told the National Assembly’s Committee on Appointment that it is a shame for the country to go hungry when State agencies have huge idle land.

“We have many arable parcels of land owned by the government that are idle. It is a big shame that the Prisons department, for instance, has thousands of hectares yet they buy food,” he said.

“If you approve me for appointment, my first task will be to go to the Cabinet, get the resolution that requires the surrender of idle land held by ministries, departments and agencies of government and implement it immediately.”