Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto gives State 90 days to settle Mau evictees

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto has now given the Jubilee government a three-month ultimatum to settle those evicted from Mau Forest.

The Council of Governors chair says the Jubilee duo of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto got the bulk of their votes in the 2013 General Election from the Rift Valley after promising to settle the evictees in their first 100 days but have not done so two years after getting into office.

Totally unacceptable

“The Government cannot go about its business as usual while people languish in camps. Since 2007 the evictees have been given empty promises upon empty promises. Their lives were disrupted and their children have been denied their right to education. This is totally unacceptable,” Ruto said.

He said the Government should stop lying to Kenyans that all the IDPs have been settled and instead ensure that the Mau evictees are given a decent life.

Seeking votes

Speaking in Transmara East, Narok County, during the burial of Kalenjin musician Samuel Sang also known as Junior Kotestes on Saturday, Governor Ruto said it is a shame that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have never honoured their promise to settle the evictees.

He said the two leaders should take responsibility and ensure that the internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Chebugen and Kusumek camp are resettled immediately.

Ruto, who was accompanied by governors Samuel Tunai (Narok) and Paul Chepkwony (Kericho), Senator Kipchumba Murkomen (Elgeyo Marakwet), MPs Johana Ngeno (Emurwa Dikirr), Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills) and Leonard Sang (Bureti) said the Government had totally neglected the families yet they had voted them in.

“When the Jubilee leaders were seeking votes, they promised to resettle these families elsewhere. The Government should have continued providing food rations to them as it looks for a place to settle them,” he said.

Ruto claimed the resettlement exercise that cost the Government Sh7 billion was shoddy because it locked out genuine IDPs.

“The Government must now walk the talk. It is the Government’s sole prerogative to ensure that its people have access to basic needs such as education, proper health facilities and food,” said Ruto.

Three days

This comes just a week after hundreds of the evictees, who had been camping between the Mau forest complex and Konoin constituency, walked for 215km to Bomet town to seek audience with Government officials at Bomet County Commissioner Bernard Leparmarai’s office.

The affected are said to have taken three days to trek from the Chebyagan and Kusumek camps after failing to get assistance from the Government that had promised to resettle them six years ago.

Simon Ng’eno, the spokesperson of the evictees and who presented a petition to Mr Leparmarai, accused the Government of failing to consider all the evictees for the resettlement exercise that ended in June 2013.

“We cannot continue to live like animals in tattered tents without food and medical provisions.

“Some of us have died because of the harsh weather and we fear if we continue living there we will all die,” said Mr Ng’eno.

Leparmarai was non-committal on the way forward after meeting the evictees.