Questions are arising on whether Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is in Government or Not.
Earlier in the week two lawyers have disagreed on whether Mr. Odinga is part of President Kenyatta and William Ruto Jubilee government.
This started with a tweet from flamboyaunt Lawyer Donald B Kipkorir who happened to deffend Mr. Odinga from the ongoing evictions from the Mau Forest.
In his tweet Kipkorir said, “Raila Odinga is not in Government …. To blame him for Mau Evictions (which eviction is proper) is dishonest & deceit beyond the pale …. Anyway who believes such rhetoric needs help. Our Forest Towers must be protected above politics.”
To his response, former presidential candidate and Lawyer Ekuru Aukot seemed to differ from lawyer Kipkorir’s claiming that claimed Mr. Odinga is not part of the government.
In his twitter response he said, “I totally agree with the absolute protection of our water towers. That’s not negotiable with any one. However, I am puzzled by your deliberate political blindness that our friend Raila Odinga isn’t in government. Don, you can do better than that.”
This two tweets brought some speculations and doubts not sure who was talking the truth.
However, in the recent past, Mr Odinga has been representing Kenya on international and local missions.
This had been attributted by the most talked about handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga that happenned in March.
The Mau evictions has had people and government officials falling out following the issue.
Recently Deputy President supporters including Majority leader Senator Kipchumba Murkomen blamed Raila Odinga for the ongoing Mau Eviction.
Senator Murkomen, claimed that there were some people who had joined the government through the backdoor and were working with some government officials to remove people from Mau a statement that was speculated to have been pointing out to Raila Odinga.
Interestingly, the Mau evictions after the 2007 election, which were fronted by Mr Odinga –then as Prime Minister- led to his fallout with Mr Ruto, who was opposed to the move.
Mau Forest, the biggest water catchment area in the region, has been a hot potato for years. In 2010, Ruto opposed Raila’s efforts to restore the forest, riding on the issue to alienate him from most voters in Rift Valley in the 2013 General Election.
This later had Mr Ruto team up with Mr Kenyatta and twice defeat Mr Odinga in 2013 and in 2018, after locking him out of the Rift Valley vote.
At least 12,000 illegal settlers, living on 146,000 hectares of forest land, are on the verge of evictions that started last week.
A multi-agency team of KFS, Administration Police and Kenya Wildlife Service is involved in the operation. Narok North MP Moitalel ole Kenta and his Bomet Central counterpart, Ronald Tonui, have differed over the evictions.
While Mr Tonui opposed the evictions, MP Kenta has insisted the evictions must continue if the future of Kenya’s largest water tower is to be guaranteed. Kenta dismissed Tonui’s concerns, saying most of the beneficiaries of the land were powerful people in the previous government, who also allocated or sold the land to their supporters.
The evictions are aimed at halting further depletion of the forest and stop activities that hamper conservation. The Mau complex straddles several counties and is Kenya’s biggest forest. It is the source of water for Lake Victoria and the White Nile.