Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja came out telling Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen to stop disrespecting President Uhuru Kenyatta by rubbishing the Head of State’s directives.
According to Sakaja, the President must be respected as the Jubilee Party leader. Any issues arising from his quest to fight corruption and foster peace should be handled internally,
He further added saying, “Inciting Kenyans against Uhuru’s initiatives Building Bridges and the fight against corruption as well as undermining his leadership will no longer be acceptable.”
Nairobi Senator’s response was attributed by senator Murkomen’s remarks on Thursday while in Narok that opposition leader Raila Odinga was behind the Mau evictions in the spirit of the handshake.
According to Murkomen statement he said withot mentioning names, “Some people who recently joined the government through the backdoor are working with some government officials to remove people from Mau.”
“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,” he added.
The Elgeyo Marakwet senator said the evictions were geared towards scuttling Deputy President William Ruto’s 2022 bid by turning the affected communities against him. He was with nine Jubilee MPs.
Yesterday, Sakaja termed Murkomen’s remarks as “disingenuous, underhand and disrespectful” to the President. speculations have emerged that there are growing concerns in ODM that Ruto is taking advantage of the truce between the ex-Prime Minister and President Kenyatta to raid Raila’s lieutenants and reposition himself.
In a new political twist, most Jubillee politicians blamed Opposition leader Raila Odinga for the evictions that have seen about 9,000 people flushed out of the water tower.
Eight leaders from the Rift Valley and are in the Jubilee party have denied government involvement in the exercise claiming it was an orchestrated move meant to scuttle Jubilee Party’s 2022 succession plans.
According to Murkomen, the President and his deputy were not aware of the evictions and hence concluding that the opposition leader had an hand in it.
While addressing the hundreds of settlers evicted from the Maasai Mau section he added saying, the people who came through back door to the government have the aim to remove people from the forest in order to embarrass the Jubilee government. Mr Murkomen was accompanied by Bomet Senator Christopher Langat, MPs Johana Ngeno(Emurua Dikirr), Ronald Tonui (Bomet Central), Beatrice Kones (Bomet East), Nelson Koech (Belgut), Japhet Kiptergech (Buret), Women Rep Lis Chelule (Nakuru) and Joyce Korir (Bomet).
He further said that the President and his deputy William Ruto…had sent him to tell the victims to go back and the ghovernment would bring building materials to rebuild your houses.
The legislators threatened 300 officers comprising Kenya Forest Service (KFS), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Narok county government rangers, regular and administration police with disciplinary action for conducting the exercise and using force on innocent settlers.
At least 12,000 illegal settlers are targeted in the evictions that started last week. A multi-agency team of Kenya Forest Service, Administration Police and Kenya Wildlife Service are involved.
The DP said the government would issue title deeds to settlers and rebuild 15 schools that were demolished in the 2005 eviction but said that those who have encroached the key water tower will be evicted. Mr Ruto said the government has allocated Sh60million for to ensure the schools re-open.