I Own a Ksh12 Million Plot, But I Rely on My Children for Pocket Money

When I bought my land in Kiserian in 2004, I genuinely believed I had made the smartest financial decision of my life.

At the time, I was in my early 40s and working as a secondary school teacher in Nairobi. My salary was modest, but teaching in those days came with one advantage — discipline. I was never a flashy spender. I saved slowly and consistently.

Back then, conversations about wealth almost always ended with one phrase: “Nunua shamba.”

Everywhere you looked, people bought plots in places like Kitengela, Rongai, Kiserian, and Juja as Nairobi expanded. 

So when a colleague introduced me to an acre in Kiserian going for Ksh250,000, I did not hesitate too much.

The area was still very interior then. The roads were rough, electricity was inconsistent, and there were very few permanent homes nearby. 

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Over the years, Kiserian changed completely.

Tarmac roads came closer. Residential estates started mushrooming. Land prices kept climbing year after year. Every time I checked with brokers, the value seemed to have doubled again.

At one point around 2015, I remember feeling extremely clever. People who had laughed at “bush investments” were suddenly scrambling to buy plots in satellite towns.

I convinced myself that retirement was sorted.

By the time I retired in 2024 after decades in teaching, brokers were valuing the land at nearly Ksh10 million. Today, some estimate it could fetch as much as Ksh12 million depending on the buyer.

On paper, I looked wealthy. But retirement has humbled me in ways I did not expect.

The biggest problem is this: land is not money until someone buys it.

And getting that buyer has been far harder than I imagined.

The land is still somewhat interior despite the growth around Kiserian. Most buyers today want plots near the main road or within developed gated communities. Mine requires driving several kilometres off the main road.

You can see the hesitation immediately when potential buyers visit.

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They ask questions about access roads, water, electricity, security, and transport. Some promise to “think about it” and disappear completely.

Others make offers that feel insulting compared to the current market value.

The only serious buyers I get want me to subdivide the land into smaller plots because very few people today can raise Ksh10 million or more in cash for one large piece of land.

But at my age, subdividing feels like another expensive and exhausting process. There are survey costs, approvals, title processing, agents — and honestly, I no longer have the energy I had twenty years ago.

So here I am. Retired. Owning land worth millions.

But still depending on my pension savings and occasionally my children for daily expenses.

Sometimes it feels embarrassing explaining that reality to people. They assume I must be extremely comfortable because “Mwalimu ako na shamba ya Kiserian.”

What they do not understand is that value on paper does not always translate to money in your pocket.

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These days, my wife and I survive largely through small-scale farming and chicken rearing at home in Kiambu. The chickens help cover groceries and occasional bills. We also grow vegetables for home consumption to reduce expenses.

Life is manageable, but definitely not the retirement I had imagined when I bought that land twenty years ago.

The funny thing is that I do not entirely regret buying it. The land genuinely appreciated. The investment itself was not bad. In fact, compared to many other investments, it performed very well over time.

For years, I thought my retirement plan was complete simply because my asset kept increasing in value.

Now I understand something I wish someone had told me earlier: an investment can be valuable and still leave you financially strained if you cannot easily convert it into cash.

And sometimes, being land rich and cash poor can feel like a very lonely place to be.