By Guest Writer
Mama Ngina Kenyatta is one of (if not) the most powerful and wealthiest women in Kenya. She was married to the founding president of the republic of Kenya Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and is the mother of the outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta.
The former First Lady has shied away from politics until recently when she came out to defend her son’s decision to support ODM leader Raila Odinga for the presidency in the forthcoming general elections. Her sentiments were met with mixed reactions from Kenyans. With her son’s popularity in the larger central Kenya dwindling, she felt it was the right time to make her voice heard but that had little if any effect.
So what does this reclusive former First Lady own? In the book aptly titled Kenya: Looters and Grabbers: 54 Years of Plunder by the Elite by Joe Khamisi- paints a disturbing picture of wanton greed by the former First family when their patriarch assumed power.
Acquiring land
According to the book that was banned in the country, Mama Kenyatta “went around inspecting properties to be grabbed”.
Months to her role as First Lady, Mama Ngina had acquired 1,006 acres of land at Dandora from Hendrik Rensburg for only Kes. 200,000.
Other lands she acquired (together with her step sons Peter Muigai and Peter Magana Kenyatta) according to the then Commissioner of Land-J.A O’loughlin include:
200 acres in Nairobi-LR No. 765913
LR No. 7659/7/3 Nairobi area-1,483 acres
LR No. 7659/2 Nairobi area-100 acres
LR No. 1012/21 Nairobi area-16.6 acres
LR No. 11521-100 acres plot in Nairobi-solely owned by Mama Ngina
10,000 acres in Rumuruti
Also Read: Largest Landowners In Kenya With 10,000 Acres And Above
Nairobi/Thika Superhighway
Mama Ngina Kenyatta was among the Kenyans who owned land along the Nairobi/Thika Superhighway. According to Kenyan Notice No. 6035 signed by the then Commissioner of Lands Mabea, the ex-First Lady owned six plots along the super highway. The plots are as follows:
- Plot No. 13562/34 – 0.0344 hectares
- Plot No. 13562/33 – 0.1123 hectares
- Plot No. 13562/32 – 0.1184 hectares
- Plot No. 13562/30 – 0.1637 hectares
- Plot No. 13562/29 – 0.1738 hectares
- Plot No. 13562/27 – 0.9904 hectares
The Commission of Inquiry into Illegal and Irregular Allocation of Public Land chaired by P. N. Ndung’u gave a damning revelation of how the First Family hived large tracts of land. Part of the commission findings are as follows:
Kikuyu escarpment forest-38 hectares (1965)
Another 36 hectares (1980)
24 hectares (1993)
2.8 hectares registered as Ndarugu/Gakoa/584 at Thika was allocated to Mama Ngina and Peter Muigai Kenyatta in 1978 when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died.
