upepo
Elder Lister
A few years ago, an acre of land around Lake Naivasha was selling for 20 millions - or more. Today, with the lake having broken its banks and spewing its puke on those lands, that same land is now in negative equity.
Banks that had taken title deeds as security for huge loans are counting losses. Owners of such land are feeling suicidal. Families in a nearby highly populated Kihoto estate are moving out of their houses as water slithered inside the same dwellings to take up a permanent occupancy.
One of my good friends has been running a tourist hotel by the lake for 35 years. Then, the lake water came and swallowed all the rooms. The entire place was submerged.
The hippos too moved in with the water. It was no longer the place he made dinner for his international guests around some sparking tongues of bonfire. A place where his dollar guests emptied bottles of fine single malt whiskey as scantily dressed maasai sored in the air with every jump, in a formation that was aimed at squeezing every dollar dollar from the guests' wallets.
This is a hotel that I have spent several nights over the years, courtesy of a long friendship.
I returned to the same place in February this year and as we stood on the fridges of the rising water, my friend's eyes welled in tears. He has witnessed nature's raw and unforgiving ruthlessness.
My friend has already bought another huge piece of land a short distance uphill from the ruins of his old hotel but that wasn't a consolation. It only serves to remind him that he is starting to rebuild his business from ground zero, all over again. He hoped that by the time the rising lake reaches his new abode, he will probably have exited this earth or probably no longer be willing or ready to fight with nature.
That is a story of my friend. It is the same story with almost all those who had found, bought and heavily invested in what they thought was a prime piece of gem by the shores of Lake Naivasha. A place that is firmly engraved in some Happy Valley tales of the yesterday. It is no longer a happy valley.
In fact, the land around Naivasha is not like any other. In fact, it was only rivaled by the coast in terms of high class hospitality establishments. It was our little Mombasa. Now, all that is facing a dip into the water.