While visiting villages south of Giza Governorate, one will notice how urban, concrete buildings are scattered across the Egyptian countryside — an eye-sore in these once green pastures.
Local residents blame the unwanted urbanization on the so-called ‘Agricultural Land Mafia’, which they say is a phenomenon that has boomed in the area since the January 25, 2011 revolution and the subsequent breakdown in security.
While visiting villages south of Giza Governorate, one will notice how urban, concrete buildings are scattered across the Egyptian countryside — an eye-sore in these once green pastures.
Local residents blame the unwanted urbanization on the so-called ‘Agricultural Land Mafia’, which they say is a phenomenon that has boomed in the area since the January 25, 2011 revolution and the subsequent breakdown in security.
The mafia operates by using a Kahool, a person to whom the land ownership is moved on paper from the primary owner in exchange for an amount of money. This Kahool then assumes full legal responsibility.
“The term Kahool was first used by the Alexandria real estate mafia, and soon became common among the agricultural land mafia,” says Mohammad Hijazi, the legal adviser at the Land Center for Human Rights (LCHR).
Hijazi explains that a Kahool is often a low-income person hoping to improve his living conditions but ends up getting fined or sent to prison instead.
Legal responsibility
Wael is a Kahool. He signed property transfer contracts and got involved in 40 cases. The court finalised some of those cases and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
“My son was unemployed, so people offered him to sign some contracts in exchange for money,” said Wael’s mother. “They also promised him that they would pay all the fines, but the police soon arrested him.”
Wael now sits inside the prison, while his lawyer Maher al-Jabali searches for a legal loophole. “I filed an appeal at the Court of Cassation,” al-Jabali said “but to stop prosecution, the law requires a reason subsequent to the sentence to be proven before the prosecutor.”
The penalty of building on agricultural land is a monetary fine or imprisonment or both. The prison term may last between 24 hours and three years, depending on the discretion of the court, said al-Jabali.
In a telephone interview from his jail cell, Wael told Correspondents that the Land Mafia included landowners, staff of agricultural associations, lawyers, realtors and a former parliamentary candidate. Wael claimed that they transferred the property to him within the agricultural associations in Tarsa, Shabramant and Al-Nazla villages in exchange for money, and then they abandoned him after his arrest.
Illiterate and signed eight contracts
In a nearby village called Nazlet Abu Musallam, the wife of Mohammad, another Kahool, described how her husband was fooled into playing the role of Kahool. “A person named Taha used to come to the village in a luxurious car. He took my husband and three others and arranged with them to transfer agricultural properties in exchange for 500 pounds (US $64) each. My husband signed eight different contracts despite being illiterate,” she said.
“The police arrested my husband, convicted him in 12 counts and forced him to pay fines. So I went to a lawyer who told me that my husband is being threatened with 30 years imprisonment.”
Government admits complicity
Mohammad Shehata, director of the Department of Agriculture in Giza admitted to the phenomenon and said that Giza ranks 16th among Egyptian provinces in term of agricultural land violations.
“There is a legal action to stop this,” Shehata said. “Tripartite committees representing the department of agriculture, local councils and the police have been created. They wage removal campaigns almost every day, and all colluding employees are referred to the public prosecutor,” he said.
Shehata said that nearly 54% of land in Giza has been enroached and that a Kahool is considered an accomplice and is punished for constructing on agricultural land, according to Law 19 of 2008. The government also initiates cases against landowners for division of land and tax evasion.
Building on media reports, the latest report of the Ministry’s Department of Land Protection indicates that the total number of encroachments in the last four years reached 1.4 million, with a total area of 57,300 acres.
Lack of control
At LCHR in Ramses Square in Cairo, which defends farmers’ rights, legal adviser Mohammad Hijazi said that some people buy agricultural land from farmers at low prices and turn them into sites with buildings, in collusion with corrupt employees within agricultural associations.
Hijazi blames the regulatory agencies for being absent. He encourages all Kahool families to file complaints, disclose the truth and say that the MoA Department of Land Protection is not fulfilling its role.
Farmers’ losses
Landowner Mohammad Yousuf believes that the government agricultural policy is the main reason behind the land encroachments, pointing out that farmers suffer from annual losses because of the crop marketing challenges.
“I have land that I rent to farmers at 6,000 pounds (US $766) per acre per year,” said Yousuf. “The price of agricultural land is (worth) around one million pounds (US $ 127,690) an acre, and if it is turned into a housing area, it will double three or four times, depending on the location.”
He added that “some landowners wait until the land comes within residential areas, while others circumvent the law and transfer the ownership to others. However, the law allows construction on 10 meters per acre in properties exceeding 5 acres and with a maximum of 250 meters.”
Nicknamed “eloquent farmer,” Mohamad Barghash, member of the independence current believes that the government’s legal measures are against farmer rights.
He explains that the unified Construction Law of 2009 and the subsequent decision No. 986 of the former Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, both caused the encroachments on agricultural land because they imposed harsh fees in licensing to build on land and preview work.
