By Karanja Njoroge

The Government has ruled a blanket compensation for all settlers at the Mau Forest Complex.

Forestry and Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa said a thorough vetting would be conducted to establish how some settlers got into the forest.

The minister said opportunists who had encroached into the forest would not be compensated.

Speaking a day after Prime Minister Raila Odinga announced that a deal had been struck over the forest, Dr Wekesa said there were three categories of settlers in the complex.

He cited the first group as people who were wrongly allocated land while the second composed of people who bought land from original beneficiaries.

Wekesa said there was another class who heard that land in the forest had been allocated, rushed there and demarcated parcels for themselves.

"We are going to conduct a thorough vetting to establish who is supposed to benefit from compensation," the minister said.

Wekesa was speaking at Lake Nakuru Lodge after a two-and-a-half hour aerial tour of the vital water tower with diplomats from the European Union. He announced the Government had developed a four-year comprehensive action plan to restore the forest at a cost of Sh12.2 billion.

"This is an expensive undertaking, but the reality is the cost will continue to escalate with every delay in taking remedial action," he said.

The diplomats, who expressed shock at the level of destruction, pledged to support restoration efforts on condition there was a serious strategy from the Government.

Head of the EU Delegation Eric van der Linden challenged politicians owning parcels of land in the forest to surrender them.

"They should set a good example to ordinary people who have land in the forest by surrendering their parcels," he said.

Netherlands Ambassador Laenha van den Assum said a time frame should be set upon which the agreement reached by Raila and Rift Valley MPs will be put into action.