16 April 2009 - 20H15
Piracy money inflates Kenyan property market
Piracy is a thriving business in spite of the presence of many foreign warships in the Gulf of Aden. Last year, the income from piracy reached a staggering 40 million dollars.
Piracy is a thriving business in spite of the presence of many foreign warships in the Gulf of Aden. Last year, the income from piracy reached a staggering 40 million dollars.
The pirates use the money to buy villas and cars at home in Somalia, but UN experts say the money is also flooding the neighbouring Kenyan property market.
According to Bruno Schiemsky, an independent consultant on piracy, “It might have the consequence that property prices [in Kenya] inflate artificially because of the sheer amount of money the pirates have.”
In Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, buildings are going up everywhere. House prices and rents have doubled because of money from foreigners living in Kenya, but especially the Somali diaspora. The issue makes headlines regularly.
Many Somalis do not have access to the formal banking system. Instead, they use hawalas, informal money transfer companies which are rarely registered and therefore operate as legal currency exchange bureaus. In a Nairobi suburb called Eastleigh -- also known as little Mogadishu -- most of the buildings and shops have been taken over by Somalis. The main activity here is business. Mahad Shahafi Garass, a Somali businessman who has been living in Kenya for the past sixteen years, is doing well for himself. But he denounces Kenyan prejudice against Somalis: “Somali people come together. They gather the money. They invest everywhere. That’s why they make more money than Kenyans.”
Kenyans are increasingly suspicious of Somalis, who are ready to pay large amounts of money to rent or buy houses. They now own entire estates where the Kenyan middle class used to live.
According to Margaret Ndegwa, a Kenyan resident in Komarok estates, “We will be forced to go to slums because of foreigners.”
It is difficult to determine the impact of piracy money invested in Kenya, but recent studies show that the hawala system is largely used for money laundering.
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Comments
Piracy fueling investment?
The link of the two is not very strong. Ever since we had refugees flow in around the same time, and were hosting Sudanese, Ethiopian, Rwandese, and Somali refugees, we have always seen some refugees tend to have more money than others, and are able to spend money even sending their children to private schools. I guess I was still a child then, but I never heard anyone complaining that the refugees were going to price us out of living areas.
Eisteleigh has always been a place for Waria (Cushitic speakers) so to imply that Somali Somalis recently took over is laughable. That woman claiming to be priced out needs not blame Somalis in particular. People are always quick to point fingers at someone who is not of the same tribe when they are doing better. If fellow Kikuyus were pricing her out, would she be complaining?
Everyone is free to do business in Kenya.
Piracy money inflates Kenyan property market?
This piece is bias without a doubt; Somalis are the most hard working business minded people that I have seen in the whole continent of Africa. Piracy took a root in the last two/three years and Somalis have been investing in Kenya property market & business in generally for the last 19 years. The two beneficiaries of Somalia’s civil war are Kenya & the UN in general. France 24 should check their facts before they label hard working, business minded people like Somalis. I’ve travelled many parts across Africa and seen Somali entrepreneurs (Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda). Once again France 24 do some facts checking before you put piece of trash like that on your news channel, or you decided to copy and the story that was on The Daily Nation.
inflamatory racist stupid article
this silly french reporter is clearly trying to create hatred and problem between two neighborly african people.
LETS OPEN OUR EYES
our problem in kenya started in 1963,with the divide and rule system,the elite group manipulate the poor to a point where we cant see our problems,KENYAN POLITICIANS.Stealing Billions of shillings from poor kenyans,let us not be fooled and blame others for our problems,but focus on what we can do to advance our country with unity and love for ourselves and our neighbours.LETS STOP THOSE CORRUPT POLITITIANS.who divide us into small tribes so they can control us better.WE SHOULD DEMAND MORE FROM OUR LEADERS.LETS START BY HAVING AN ELECTED PRESIDENT.NOT A THIEF.
Not True
as a kenyan and a muslim,this story isnot true,all brothers are welcome to invest and prosper,if there is a problem in kenya then it is our leaders not our investors,corrupt government officials from the TOP.number ONE PIRATE IS KIBAKI who stole the presidency from the people of kenya.SO BROTHERS AND SISTERS U A ALL WELCOME TO KENYA,its also ours,if they like it or not.dont be fooled by them,come and invest,its 2009 now,we are watching the pirates in suits and pens in kenya taking the people of kenya as hostages.
Kenya and Somali bussness
Every nation around the world seeks investiment for its country and the Kenyans are complaining from Massive investment on their housing market. I dont understand why but I believe they are either missguided or rasists. Resist groups in every nation around the world do not see from what their respective countries benefit the refugees. Somalis bring more money to kenya and creats more jobs and pay tax and they been doing this since the early 90s and pirats did not exist that time. So stop blaming my people and take advantage for what they bring to your country which is in this case money.
investments by foreigners
i find it funny tht a country complains about investments made to them, especially as it is an injection to the economy and its obvious the Kenyan government has nothing against it
Trying to steal the Somali wealth in Kenya!
I see you are trying to steal the Money belonging to Somalis in Kenya, remember, part of Kenya belong to Somalia, and there are large Somali community living in Kenya and has nothing to do with pirates
piracy money in kenya
this baseless proganda which is to creat more hatred among the comunties .estleigh has been developing last 20 years that has nothing to do money from piracy.the invstor come allover the world rwanda ethiopia usa uk australia you name it.this so nairobi is major harb for east and central africa.inaddtion,many somali@ contribute in agroup 20 --100 5000--10000$and make investment so please donot generalize so please do fair reporting
Speculation
Is this a news or speculation. I have not had any evidence pointing the Somali investment in Kenya being from illegal sources. Somalis have been investing in Kenya for the last 16 years because of the instability at home, way before any pirate incident. I know many Somalia from this area of the world, America, which invested their life savings in property markets in Kenya. Somalis use Hawala because it is the only think that works in Somalia. Go ahead France24, is another way to create another Rwanda Genocide in Kenya using speculation and fake news reporting.
Somali piracy and investment property in Kenya.
This report is little more than gossip.
Who is to say whether Somali investors, or migrants, are involved in Piracy? You may as well say that the Kenyan business community is setting themselves up to accept money from foreign investors with the intent of confiscating whatever has been bought at a later date because of spurious accusations about where the money came from in the first place, in order to re-sell the original property and thus make the profit twice over. Corruption isn't unknown in Kenya.
Pirate money in Kenya
I believe this report really has no basis what so ever and i can't understand how such a link can be made between somalis investing in kenya and piracy. The fact of the matter is somalis are very buisness minded people and this is evident where soever they have migrated. They main investers in real estate in Kenya are somalis from the diaspora, europe/america/middle east.