UPDATE: MP Shah Hospital Confirms Tom Cholmondeley Died of Heart Failure.

[RV Pundit]

In kenya, you only pay land rate (land tax) if you own a commercial plot. So this happens in urban areas. I think the Brits had this kind of taxation (hut tax) but after independence it was abandoned coz it had bad reputation. The issue is more complex than taxing Kenyatta or Delemare - coz you'll have to ensare the very poor. They won't afford to pay taxes and soon their land will be auctioned.

The solution I see is for gov to compulisory acquire those land for public projects such as an airport or industrial park or university or resettling poor people.

Let me also add, I pay $1200 per quarterly in land tax, $5000 a year for quarter of an acre in Sydney, Australia. In 5 years that amounts to $25 000. In Delemare's case, he should be paying $10 billion dollars for 5 years in land tax, that's the kind of revenue the public till can be making on land alone. Owning land means having the revenue to keep that land. These are land reforms that should have been implements post-colonialism. That's something a Kenyatta presidency and his British counterparts will never endorse, and the very fundamental reason why Kenya is still so poor.

[veritas]

I see. In Australia, your house to your office, it's the same amount determined by square footage. That's why investors build tall buildings to minimize land tax. The only difference is location, more opulent or more urban areas need to pay higher land tax. Kenya however, compared to Australia doesn't have a lot of land so land tax should be higher like Korea.

The type of housing matters. It would be unwise to give low-incomes families a house- more appropriate to build a public apartment block and make it affordable so everyone can pay a portion of that land tax. These are highly specialized, sciency economics calculations determined by lots of statistical factors- wage, location, employment rates, potential income etc.

I think there needs to be a balance of private and public. For instance a private park is usually better maintained than a public park. Because the govt still needs to find funds to maintain public sites. Sometimes half private, half public is a balanced alternative to plug those deficits. Like half public hospital for everyone, half private for those with medical insurance.

Just seizing land can cause a litany of lawsuits, the govt can't get away with that without paying sufficient compensation, not to mention costs to hire lawyers dragging up to 20 years for a settlement.

I think the best way is to implement land tax and let the owners decide. If they can afford to pay land tax like $10 billion dollars in 5 years then so be it. Highly unlikely though. The govt should focus on prime land locations where it urgently needs attention. Like building a public hospital in Busia because it has the highest HIV rate. Building an elephant conservation center on a portion of Delamare's land because elephants are at risk etc. etc.

Resettle low-income families or those unemployed in community based public housing/public employment projects. I've seen these in Lake Magadi for private housing projects, they have soda factories and workers housed in apartment blocks. More of that action happening at the national level. Offer public housing to those working on public projects. Designate a block of apartments for those working on conservation projects, construction projects, trade projects, keep Kenya clean projects etc. these things first and foremost need land.

[Omollo]

Chumley was NOT a foreigner was he?

Thanks veri. This is very illuminating post on Korea. I totally agree that Land is precious. Some countries even cap the amount a foreigner can own. For me I believe we should give poor peasant as much land as possible; as those with skills, education, resources and etc move up the economic ladder; and own buildings, industries, hotels, shares, equity etc. The poor peasant whose only skills is to forage land for food should be given land. Kenya is an example that output won't suffer just because the landholding is small. So we shouldn't worry.This delemare land is a low hanging fruit which gov should take....and set up say public institutions on it...build industries name it. The land is very prime now - Nakuru-Nairobi -is a place many companies would die to set up.

I hope the delemares read the writting on the wall and ship out.

Game reserve is what they put on paper to mean I don't have the money to invest in it.

When the Japanese colonialized Korea they stole a lot of land. They tried to grab all of my great grandparents land but soon realized it was way too much and the Japs didn't have the money, laborers and so forth to secure that much land. They couldn't weavle into the Korean chaste system because each aristocrat was like a monarchy, and had birth right loyalists with assistants ranging in the hundreds. Unlike under resourced Maasais in Kenya, the aristocrats/land owners in Korea were able to hold onto portions of their land. So the Japs stole what they could under the auspices of "game reserve" whatever.

To ensure those Japs didn't steal more land, my great grandparents gave land to the Americans, my grandparents more. The yankees naturally built airbases, military base etc. place where my mother and I was born.

Much or the North was dominated by Korea's aristocrats and to shut off the Japs, North Korea was formed. The South were poor farmers with sparse aristocratic families mostly land owning farmers with royal birth rights. Of course along the way, plebish Koreans took advantage of this foreign intrusion and rose to prominent govt positions, foreign favor etc. and like the Kenyattas killed foreign/Japanese land grabbers and stole the land for themselves. Cholmondeley's death was no accident.

Korea was thoroughly raped by small wars throughout history, many lives lost around the world during the Korean war etc. but what divides Korea today is the notion that those Japs/foreigners will colonialize Korea again. At the crux of it all, it's about land ownership, the fear of having one's motherland taken away. It's really what binds those aristocratic lineages in the North.

Poverty, corruption, stagnation persistent in Kenya today seems very much to do with unresolved land woes. Land is precious. It strengthens or weakens sovereignty. We forget that the inhabitants of long gone centuries are buried beneath that soil and truth, liberation and progress are mysteries revealed to the rightful descendants.

[RV Pundit]

Delemare was a foreigner was he not

Chumley was NOT a foreigner was he?

[Georgesoros]

Pundit,
Yes its going to hurt the poor if theres land tax but the common good will be realized to the extent that they'll become the new middle class. These monies should only be used to build schools. Even 100 shillings an acre is sufficient.

In kenya, you only pay land rate (land tax) if you own a commercial plot. So this happens in urban areas. I think the Brits had this kind of taxation (hut tax) but after independence it was abandoned coz it had bad reputation. The issue is more complex than taxing Kenyatta or Delemare - coz you'll have to ensare the very poor. They won't afford to pay taxes and soon their land will be auctioned.

The solution I see is for gov to compulisory acquire those land for public projects such as an airport or industrial park or university or resettling poor people.

Let me also add, I pay $1200 per quarterly in land tax, $5000 a year for quarter of an acre in Sydney, Australia. In 5 years that amounts to $25 000. In Delemare's case, he should be paying $10 billion dollars for 5 years in land tax, that's the kind of revenue the public till can be making on land alone. Owning land means having the revenue to keep that land. These are land reforms that should have been implements post-colonialism. That's something a Kenyatta presidency and his British counterparts will never endorse, and the very fundamental reason why Kenya is still so poor.