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Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 1 - Dominion Farms, Part 1 by: Jill Richardson Tue Jun 05, 2012 at 21:05:03 PM PDT On my 17th day in Kenya, I visited Dominion Farms, a U.S.-ownedenormous rice farm that sits in between Bondo and Siaya Districtsin Nyanza Province. To describe it, words come to mind like"unmitigated disaster" and "nightmare." See below. You can find the rest of the Kenya series here . Jill Richardson :: Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 1 - Dominion Farms, Part 1 My introduction to Dominion Farms first came from a document called"Land grabbing in Kenya and Mozambique A report on two researchmissions - and a human rights analysis of land grabbing," publishedby the FIAN International Secretariat in 2010. The Yala Swamp wetlands are located on the northeastern shorelineof Lake Victoria and are crossed by the equator. It is one of themost important riparian and floodplain wetlands around the lake,and indeed one of the largest in Kenya. The swamp forms the mouthof both the Nzoia and Yala Rivers and is a freshwater deltaicwetland arising from backflow of water from Lake Victoria as wellas the rivers' floodwaters. It provides a very important habitatfor refugee populations of certain fish species which haveotherwise disappeared from the lake. The wetlands cover an areacommonly cited as 17,500 hectares (175 km2) and contain threefreshwater lakes: Kanyaboli (1,500 hectares), Sare, and Namboyo.Other reports suggest that the swamp is much larger with a totalarea of 38,000 - 52,000 hectares. The swamp stretches 25 km fromW-E and 15 km from N-S at the lakeshore. This huge wetland ecosystem, third largest in the country after theLorian Swamp and the Tana River Delta, provides major ecologicaland hydrological functions and is a major source of livelihoods forthe neighboring communities. It is a highly productive ecosystem.According to Birdlife International, "The Yala swamp complex is byfar the largest papyrus swamp in the Kenyan sector of LakeVictoria, making up more than 90% of the total area of papyrus. Theswamp acts as a natural filter for a variety of biocides and otheragricultural pollutants from the surrounding catchment, and alsoeffectively removes silt before the water enters Lake Victoria. Thesite supports an important local fishery for the Luo and Luhyapeople who live to its south and north, respectively". Remember what malaria expert Andrew Githeko said about papyrusswamps. They don't have any malaria. Clear the swamp and turn itinto a rice paddy and the malarial mosquitoes will thank you. The Yala swampland is a trust land under the custody of the Siayaand Bondo County councils on behalf of the government. With apopulation of about half a million, it is densely populated. For along time, the local people accessed it and used it in theirvarious daily activities on a free access basis. With the entry andtake over by a US based company in 2003, this came to an abrupthalt and resulted in a loss of one of the most important assets forthe local community to secure their livelihoods - the land. In 2003, Dominion Farms Ltd, a subsidiary of Dominion Group ofCompanies based in Edmond, Oklahoma, USA, made its appearance inthe Yala swamp. The initial proposal was that Dominion would engagein rice production, in part of the swamp known as Area I, coveringabout 2,300 hectares. This land portion had been reclaimed by theLake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) before 1970 and previouslyused for agricultural activity, mainly to produce cereals, pulsesand horticultural crops. Later in the same year, Dominion enteredinto a lease agreement with both the Siaya and Bondo CountyCouncils covering 6,900 hectares of the 17,500 hectare wetlandsunder the Yala Swamp Integrated Development Project for duration of25 years, with a possibility of extension. Eventually, Dominionproposed to cover the entire swamp region of 17,500 hectares. Dominion was ushered in by a coalition of local politicians andevangelical pastors who even organized massive demonstrations infavor of the investment. At the beginning there was much optimismamong the population: Dominion had promised jobs, school, clinicsand an upsurge of the local economy in general. The infrastructureleft behind by LBDA was worn down and poverty was rife in themalaria-infested swamp region. However, disillusion set in soon. According to residents of Siayaand Bondo counties, there was employment for some 200 workers forno more than six months when brushwood and undergrowth was removedin the area. For instance, a 60 year old man was hired as asubcontractor with a team of twelve. The workers were paid 200shillings per day (approximately 2.6 USD) and the team leaderreceived an additional 50 shillings. Today, according to thevillagers in Bondo and Siaya,there is permanent employment only fora handful of watchmen (60, according to Dominion's homepage) whoare paid around 7,000 shillings (approximately 90 USD) per month. Awatchman questioned by the research team at the gate of Dominionfarm refused to reveal details about his contract and said that hewas not allowed to speak to strangers. In the rice fields, women can be seen armed with sticks to chaseaway the birds which prey on the cereal. According to villagers,they have to stand in the mud from dusk to dawn for a miserable payand even remain there when the plantation is sprayed withpesticides. Neighbors suspect it is DDT as fowl and plants havedied after the spraying. There is ample evidence of poisoned fowland plants in the vicinity of the plantation. Villagers claim thateven the cattle are destroyed by contaminated water. Wheninterviewed, a villager replied "We took the livestock to marketand found that the liver was rotten. We had to bury them, could noteven allow dogs to eat them." Dominion is indeed alleged to havesought an exemption from the worldwide ban of DDT from Kenya'sMinistry of Health supposedly to combat malaria. The incidence ofmalaria, however, is still high. Some claim it is higher now thanbefore Dominion built dykes and cut off the natural flow of theswamp waters. Charming place, huh? About the DDT, I personally saw no evidenceand I heard rumors they were using carbofuran but could not get mysource to give me any credible proof or way to verify that. Butthey certainly are spraying something - I saw it myself and tookpictures. The number of people employed has grown a bit too,although not by much, and it appears that locals only get theunskilled, low wage jobs while educated outsiders get the higherpaid positions. By the time I visited in February 2012, the womenstanding in rice paddies scaring away birds had shifted fromshaking sticks at them to containers filled with rocks. In 2003, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was commissionedby the NEMA for large-scale rice production. Authorities approvedthe EIA specifically for rice irrigation in a 2,300 hectare-area(about 13% of the Yala Swamp territory). Almost immediatelyDominion began building irrigation dykes and a weir, airstrips androads, and announced plans to build a hydroelectric plant and amajor aquaculture venture, including fish farms, a fish processingfactory and a fish mill factory, all of which could damage afragile ecosystem far beyond the designated 2,300 hectare area. Dominion Farm Limited operates on the basis of a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) signed by Dominion directors and the chairmenof Bondo and Siaya county councils in May, 2003. According to thisMoU, the councils pledge to lease to Dominion another 3,200hectares approximately ("the Additional Area") in addition to 3,700hectares - in total 6,900 hectares - set aside for large scaleagricultural purposes. The MoU makes no reference to those who maylive on the land earmarked for lease to Dominion. A lawyer inNairobi, who was commissioned by the Institute of Law andEnvironmental Governance, assumes that there must be thousands ofpeople who have been in occupation of the land by virtue ofancestral rights. One analysis criticizes that "no mention is madeof these people. It is inconceivable that 3700 hectares ofarable/agricultural land in a rural area would be lying idlewithout even persons who may be referred to as squatters. Provisionmust therefore be made for the original occupants. In my view, theCounty Councils should have given these individuals first priorityif this land was required to be allocated or leased out to anyone." Indeed, there are entire villages of farmers whose families hadbeen there for generations in the "Additional Area". The majoritydo not have any titles to prove their claims. Some, however, hadactually purchased the land and were assigned a parcel number whichwas supposed to be later replaced by a formal title deed. Forexample, the father of a 33 year old farmer from Aduwa villagebought eight acres (roughly three hectares) of land in 1975. Thesoil is extremely fertile which has made the family quiteprosperous... In 2004, Dominion offered to buy his land for 45,000 shillings/acre(approximately 600 USD), roughly a third of the market price. Thefarmer refused because he knew that for the meager compensation hewould be unable to buy a plot the same size and equal qualityanywhere else. One acre yields 24 bags of maize per harvest. At aprice of 3,000 shillings (about 400USD) per bag of maize and twoharvests a year, each acre produces around 144,000 shillings(around 1,893USD), more than thrice what Dominion offered to payfor the land. A few weeks after refusing to sell his land, thefarmer found his fields flooded and his crops destroyed. He is surethat Dominion had opened the sluices of the weir to inundate theplots of stubborn farmers. When he complained, he was chased by thepolice "who were ferried in Dominion vehicles." The same happened to another farmer. Of a nine acre plot, eightacres were flooded. Dominion paid 45,000 shillings for this oneacre and took the whole plot. The farmer says he accepted out ofneed. When he went to complain about the flooding, Dominion senthim to the county council as the owner of the land: "The countycouncil said, the area is for government, you cool down, nothingwill be done." In another case, a 29 year old farmer, whose fatherpossesses 15 acres in Syaia county directly adjacent to theDominion estate, reports that an offer by Dominion to buy hisparcel came immediately after six acres were flooded. The familyrefused. A woman 60 years of age from Yoro village, Bondo, saysthat the deliberate flooding of her land, inherited from her latehusband who died in 1989, destroyed her crops of maize, beans,vegetables, 40 heads of cattle and five houses. Another farmer, 50years old, who lives in the same village, lost 30 heads of cattle,45 sheep and 60 goats in a flooding. Complaints with the localauthorities were not attended. According to InterPress Service(ips) "the government has dismissed such allegations saying it isnot aware of any complaints from communities in the Yala Riverarea." "The idea behind the flooding is a way of pushing people away",says a member of Siaya County Council. He alleges that Dominioncontrols all the local institutions: "They even managed to bribethe media. When floods occur you won't see media." The member, whohas been campaigning against Dominion for several years, says thathe was offered the post of PR officer by Dominion with a monthlysalary of 120,000 shillings, airtime for the mobile phone of 7,000shillings per week, and a car with fuel. He refused. The member,who wants to be reelected in 2011 and become chairman of the countycouncil, accuses local politicians of having accepted bribes: "SomeMPs have built their houses with Dominion money". The mansion of aformer MP stands on a hill overlooking the Southern shore of LakeKanyaboli. It is fenced in and guarded by a watchman. The powerline ends at his house. He is the man who initially broughtDominion to the swamp. So.. welcome to Dominion... My goal was to find out how much ofthis report I could personally verify by visiting and see what elsethere was to know about Dominion Farms. 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