Deputy President William Ruto is co-ordinating the controversial Mau evictions. Narok North MP Moitalel ole Kenta has said.
The legislator slammed critics of evictions saying the operation has the full backing of Deputy President William Ruto. He claimed that the drive to evict settlers from what is Kenya’s key water catchment is being coordinated by the DP’s office.
The evictions have sparked off a political storm in the wake of the verbal clash between Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s allies.
This deepened after Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen accused Raila of masterminding the evictions.
Murkomen claimed last week that Raila was working with unnamed government officials to scuttle the Deputy President’s 2022 bid.
“There are some people who recently joined the government through the backdoor and are working with some government officials to remove people from Mau,” Murkomen said.”In their memorandum which led to a peace deal, one of the agenda items was to evict people from Mau so that they create a wedge between the settlers and their leaders,” the Elgeyo Marakwet senator claimed.
However, Kenta, who is an ODM strongman in Narok, gave a stern warning to Murkomen asking the legislator to stop lying to Narok residents.
“We are not lesser Kenyans nor are we children of a lesser God. We support the eviction. Let Murkomen and his people know that one cannot come all the way from Baringo, Bomet, Kericho and Elgeyo Marakwet to tell the Maasais which land they own and those they dont,” Kenta said.
“I would also like to tell Murkomen and his henchmen that the Maasai people are ready for them.”
A section of Nasa leaders, who accompanied Moitalel during the press briefing, said Murkomen was only dragging their party leader’s name for political correctness. The leaders claimed that Ruto had backed the collective Cabinet decision to evict squatters at Mau Forest.
“Ruto had made a public address in Narok supporting the evictions saying no encroachment must take place,” they said.
The leaders want the Senate Majority Leader to be arrested for inciting as well as for using derogatory terms in reference to Uhuru and Raila. “When he said that Raila signed an agreement with another mkora (crook), he is really calling the president a mkora.”
“This is a tantamount threat to the sovereignty of our country and security of this country.”
They, however, want the issue to be solved amicably.
Murkomen’s county also had a case where squatters were ordered to leave Embobut forest.
Following this, the EU suspended a Sh3.6 billion grants for conserving water towers in 11 counties, citing the violation of the indigenous community’s rights.
Evictions from the Mau forest has been a very thorny issue and is one of the issues that led to the bitter fallout between Raila and Ruto in 2009.
In October 2010 Ruto accused then Prime Minister Raila Odinga of delaying the resettlement of Mau Forest evictees saying the ODM leader wanted to use it as an election bait.
An unapologetic Mr Ruto blamed Mr Odinga for being behind the delays in the release of the Sh3.6 billion meant to buy alternative land for those who were evicted.
“Some people in government have refused to fast-track the resettlement simply because they want to use it as bait for votes in the next General Election,” said Mr Ruto.
In 2014, Raila defended his actions to evict the thousands of families from the Mau forest and termed his critics “hypocrites.”
“To date, I remain proud of the work we did (in Mau), the care with which we did it and the benefits it conferred on our people. Those who believe only in the present time and who work only for themselves will never do conservation work. That is the lot that politicised the Mau and shed crocodile tears over it,” he said at his office when he received an award for his conservation efforts.