Emurua Dikir MP Johana Ng’eno threatened that if the Mau evictees are to be returned to their ancestral land then the same should also apply in other areas.
“The President should read the letter; it came from his office. Is it the position of the government that people should go back to where they came from? Is that the position of the government that all the people should go back to their counties of origin? To their ancestral land?” said Ng’eno.
The MP said they would be waiting for the President to tell the country if it was the official position of the government that everybody should go back to where they came from.
“….then he should declare the deadline when all the rest will go back to where they came from,” Ngeno said without revealing who the other people he spoke of were.
The Mau Forest Complex in Kenya’s Rift Valley is the largest of the country’s five watersheds.
It is also the largest closed-canopy forest in East Africa. Several ecosystems in Kenya, including the Maasai Mara National Reserve, and in neighbouring Tanzania depend on water originating from the complex.
However illegal logging, ill-planned settlement and the fallout from post-election violence in 2007-08 deteriorated forest resources, threatening livelihoods, food security, tourism and water supplies in the rift valley, Nayaza and western Kenya.
Attempts to kick out illegal settlers have previously met stiff opposition from local leaders.
Yesterday, the leaders questioned the President’s intentions on the Mau evictions saying he was yet to respond to their earlier request for a meeting with them to iron out the contentious issues.
The leaders cited a letter written by Olenguruone assistant county commissioner Ogaso Bruno who threatened to chase some of the illegal to “initial counties of origin.”
“Three cases by different entities have been filed to stop this heinous, illegal evictions but many judicial officers have intimated to us that the Executive has intimidated the Judiciary against issuing any orders on this matter irrespective of the merits,” the politicians said.
Deputy President William Ruto, the region’s political kingpin, has avoided commenting on the issue which far-reaching political ramifications.
Source: The Star