The court battle between Del Monte, Murang'a County and Kiambu County is definitely one to watch keenly for williamson fans. (
link)
Del Monte's leases expire in 5-6 years. Looking through wazuans' thoughts on this, it seems Williamson is in the same boat.
If Murang'a succeeds in tying lease renewals to giving up 6,000 acres (or almost a quarter of Del Monte's 22,000 acre Murang'a holdings) then it will surely encourage other counties- including those in Rift Valley region. Some companies might deem 25% surrender as the painful price of staying in business but since there's unlikely to be compensation, then that's a serious loss to shareholders- not just of the book value of the land but of space for future production expansion.
The counties and the National Land Commission seem to be reading from different scripts- some like Nandi and Kericho have said that there will be no renewal (
link), others like Murang'a claim that they will renew multinational leases but on their own terms (i.e. surrender some land), while the NLC chairman was assuring investors 2 years ago that lease renewal is based on assessment how the land was used over the 99 years (
link).
All this would make any multinational jumpy since there's no consistent nationwide policy on renewals and you are at the whim of politicians and their cronies. Hapo ndio ufisadi huanza.
Even the birds can testify...but you forget the chief has his son as the judge and his son-in-law as interpreter- Oumar Ba