One of the things Kenyans learned from Mzee Jomo Kenyatta is how to grab land. His famous philosophy was, “Turudi mashambani tujenge taifa.” A well-set philosophy necessary for building the country. The Mau-Mau are said to have died holding the soil in their hand. The whole independence struggle was to get back the land that the British had Nyakuad! I did not realize what Kenyatta meant. Now I know he was taking the country back. His land in Nakuru, Thika, the Tea Estate near Kijabe, Mombasa, and thousands of acres in Taita. Moi followed his Nyayo. He took it one step further and got the Mau Forest: Madness! But this land thing has gone too far if we are now Nyakuaring land in America!
I am not talking about nyakuaring from the perspective of a Kenyatta philosophy. I am talking about a blue collar systematic plan by Kenyans to occupy the United States: Owning land with an intention of leasing it to Americans! Man we are good. Which other people have a Kenyan in the White House flying around in a personal Boeing 747? With the best fighter jets escorting him? What a ride! . . . Imagine that! Of all the second-generation immigrants: White Anglo Saxons, Latinos, Chinese, Japanese, and Russians in America, it is us with a son of a Kenyan who occupy the White House. A Kenyan man walks around like Lincoln! How did that happen? It must be that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Ishmael ordained that it was a Kenyan who would comfort the daughters of the slaves!
Anyway I was in St Louis, MO, on a journey accompanied by Kenyan Christian Broadcasters. We were received by a pastor who likes to call himself “Zackeus.” The man’s heart is not Zacheatic though, but more like Samson’s. Of all the Kenyan pastors in the United States I have met, I think this guy represents the best of Christ’s grace and mercy. One of the things a man does in Kenya is show guests who come to his home the cows, sheep, goats, and shamba. So this pastor took us in his nice black car. He ministers to a very sizable congregation of Kenyans in St. Louis. A great bunch of Kenyan immigrants. The women, they cook these dumas and gwashe and Uji! No mursick though, I miss that Kosirai liquid . . . Talk about eating, we ate, Kenyan style: real food I would add.
He takes us around to show us the land they have nyakuad. He uses that word because apparently Kajuang came to visit and inquired whether the church had bought the properties or they had nyakuad! I am amazed by my people. I saw a man in Kenya who had built his home on a road reserve! Not just any road reserve, I mean he build his house on the road, then he moved the road for cars to go around him! Ndugu zangu!
Anyway they bought the first church. After they became too many, they bought another property and kept the first one. Then they became too many and bought another property and kept the second one. Now they are in another property bigger than the second one. They even have a shamba there! They have planted pumpkins. These Kenyans . . . they can’t just buy these things at Wal-Mart, they have to grow their own!
We wondered why they have all these properties around. The answer we got was typical of Kenyans anywhere. “Unajua hawa wazungu, walitutawala, sasa ni wakati wetu,” the pastor said. Apparently, they rent these buildings to American churches who cannot afford their own buildings! “We use the rent to pay for the other building we just bought.” Can you believe these Kenyans? They came to America, they settled in the White House, now they are systematically buying up property and leasing it to Americans?
This spirit of our people is so capitalistic. While many Americans sit around waiting for the welfare check, and others refuse to work in retirement homes, and others wait for our ‘cousin’ Obama to give them stuff, my people are hustling all kinds of work. They buy houses, start businesses, and nyakua land from Americans to lease back to them at a profit. What I don’t understand is, if they are this capitalistic, why don’t they like my friend Mitt Romney? The guy is a Kikuyu under cover. He took failing companies and after refurbishing them sold them back to the same people he bought them from: His fellow Americans. For a profit, I would add!
Every Kenyan home turns on CNN to listen to the liberals defend Obama’s attack on the rich. A contradiction? No, they are just supporting their ‘cousin’ hoping he looks away from their illegality so that they can have more time to nyakua? Capitalism Kenyan style! By the way, if you happen to be in St. Louis, look up these characters (at ch*************@ya***.com). They might even take you to the Indian Sikh restaurant near the airport. . . Hot! Hot! Hot! chicken curry. . .set my hair on fire! Nice people though. . .
Teddy Njoroge Kamau, PhD, Director, International Desk/SYR/Radio/TV & Diaspora Messenger Contributor.
