the powder land distribuCounty Why greed and lack of transparency in leadership is the bane of Taita-Taveta conservancies

invested heavily on real estate projects in Nairobi and Mombasa.

Five years ago more than 28 ranches and 7 conservancies came together and unveiled an ambitious Strategic plan under the Taita- Taveta WIldlife Conservancies Association(TTWCA), a move that formally recognized the over 1.1m acres of rangeland within Tsavo Ecosystem as home to thousands of wild animals. This was seen as a game changer that would rejuvenate the conservancies and make them key revenue sources for the county. However, according to Mohamed Kamanya who has been working in these conservancies for more than twenty years , this ambitious goal has not been realized largely due to lack of transparency and accountability in the conservancies leadership. He says there has been no recruitment drive for decades as the key officials fear being ousted therefore failing to hold Annual General Meetings(AGMs) as required by law.

“Partisan governance and insatiable greed is the order of the day” he says adding that this has locked out Taita-Taveta residents from participating or benefitting from these conservancies.

“Only a handful of about 400 individuals are the custodians of these important resources. They manage these conservancies with an iron fist and are hellbent on seeing that the status quo remains” he says.

Kamanya says these cartels managing the conservancies have created a thriving ground for criminal enterprises and syndicates to thrive.

“There’s no accountability and transparency on wildlife and donor funding of about $1.5bn as only a handful of TTWCA members who are close relatives know how the money is spent” says the official. This has denied the Taita –Taveta residents an opportunity to enjoy the proceeds from these conservancies while the cartels have

Kamanya says majority of these conservancies do not pay or under declare land rates and other concomitant taxes such as VAT, capital, gain excise and income.

They have deliberately registered community trusts as a way of circumventing taxation regimes.

“Women and youth participation is wanting and below par while kinship seems to be the qualification for employment” he says. The conservancies have a gross annual turnover of about Sh3bn, mainly from livestock, artisanal mining and carbon trade.

Other key highlights of the shortcomings in the conservancies include:

*Illegally registered majority of the communities who are bona fide members of the ranches and swallowed their shareholding.

*Refusal to make the original documents used to set up the ranches and structures thereof and shareholding that’s all inclusive.

*Forged certificates of incorporation, illegally removing the other shareholders from the communities.

*Less than 5 per cent of the community own more than 80 per cent of the land available to the community.

*Total number of staff employed by conservancies in the county is about 780 community