Land grabbers, bags of cash in car trunk and a tale of houses in two cities

I recently heard a story of a minister who turned up in a suburb near Kampala and bought a house. For Shs1.2 billion. In cash. Not cash of the ‘follow-me-to-the-bank’ variety, or cash of ‘give-me-your-account-details-so-that-I-make-the-transfer’. It was cash, from what I am told, of ‘open-the-boot-and-lift-the-sack’ variety.
Apparently these stories are not new. At the height of the Pension Scam a few years ago, some of the beneficiaries drove around with money in their car trunks looking for ‘For Sale’ signs.
In fact they had so much volume in the real estate industry that not only did they create an asset class bubble that is yet to be fully corrected, they reportedly hired surveyors and lawyers full-time to procure their properties.
Put in such context, the grilling that Lands and Housing minister Betty Amongi received this week at the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters is really par for the course.
If the allegations against her – that she used her position to acquire properties in the city unfairly and at sweetheart prices are proven, she will mostly be guilty of being caught, not of the act. A few of her colleagues, when she next appears at a Cabinet meeting, might offer polite words of support and encouragement, but there are many who, if taken aside and spoken to nicely, would also give tried-and-tested advice on how to get away with plunder.
One of the former ministers in the Lands ministry is famously said to have started his first day poring over a large map of Kampala identifying undeveloped public land, which he then used proxies to acquire. From public parks to school playing grounds, nothing was beyond plunder.
The obvious problem with these kinds of things is the abuse of office and plunder of public property. But there is more to it. See, if a minister grabbed the playing fields at Lugogo and proceeded to build a private stadium, we might grumble about the process, but not the outcome; kids from the nearby Naguru estates would still have a place to develop their talent.
If, on the other hand, the land was turned into a used car selling lot, the new owners of the land would have to invest a tidy amount in electric fences and the young boys from Naguru would develop entirely new talents, such as grabbing necklaces or demanding money by menaces. True story.
As usual, this is morally wrong, but it also shows a lack of imagination. To see this, let us take a quick look at our next-door neighbours. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has declared a target of building 500,000 new houses over the next five years.
This is obviously an ambitious target and it will take a miracle to even achieve half of it, but it speaks to ambition. Here is how it will work: The government will turn over land it owns (on behalf of the public) to private developers, who are willing to build to specification and within a certain price point.
Because the land is free to the developer, it is expected that the houses will come in significantly cheaper than similar houses built by independent contractors, and bring downward pressure on low- and mid-cost housing generally across Nairobi.
A Kenyan who lived and worked in South Africa for 19 years, has been brought back to run the project and he reckons that the economies of scale from such a quantity of build will reduce the cost of the houses even further than the land equity relief.
And here is the kicker: The government says if a developer builds the houses to specification, but fails to sell it off within five years of completion, the government will buy the house at a pre-determined rate.
Thus a private developer can bring a house to market with considerable opportunities for upside, but with a government guarantee against a downside. It is quite possible – even guaranteed - that some Kenyan government officials will grab a few hundred houses for themselves, and maybe get themselves contracts to develop the houses. But if the project develops and delivers even 100,000 or 200,000 affordable houses, few Kenyans will really weep over that.
Thus the problem we have isn’t merely that people in power are stealing public assets. It is that they are doing so without imagination. Any one will tell you, only a fool or a thug drives around with a car boot full of money!
Mr Kalinaki is a journalist and a poor man’s freedom fighter. [email protected]
Twitter: @Kalinaki.