By Kipchumba Kemei

KENYA: The resettlement of Mau Forest evictees, a sore thumb in former President Kibaki’s administration and which cost Prime Minister Raila Odinga the Kalenjin vote, comes as a huge test for President Uhuru Kenyatta.

For the President, it will be a delicate balancing act between conserving the crucial water tower and appeasing the community, which lays claim on the forest land and overwhelmingly voted for the Jubilee Alliance.

In the 2007 disputed presidential polls, the community voted for Raila, but later turned against him when he was given the mandate to rehabilitate the water tower.

After clearing settlements in the South West Mau in the first phase of restoring the 400,000 hectare complex in which more than 20,000 settlers were evicted, there were no funds to compensate or buy land to resettle the families.

Blame game

Blame game ensued over who was responsible for the delay in releasing the funds with Raila and former Lands Minister James Orengo blaming Finance Ministry, then headed by Uhuru Kenyatta, for sabotaging efforts to restore the complex.

Mau Forest Steering Committee Chairman Hassan Noor says profiling claimants in the 146, 800 hectare Maasai Mau was completed two years ago, and a proposal sent to the Treasury for the release of Sh3 billion for compensation.

“We finished verification of title deeds and relevant land sale documents the settlers have long ago and even sent a proposal to compensate 7, 000 families. The money is yet to be released,” said Noor, former Rift Valley PC.

The community says now that President Uhuru has made it to State House, they will be waiting to see how he juggles the issue of restoring and conserving the forest.

Already some are of the view the Uhuru presidency will turn a blind eye on old and new settlements, arguing he would not like to hurt his relationship with the community.

Because of the Mau issue, all Kalenjin MPs except Franklin Bett, Henry Kosgey, Sally Kosgei, Margaret Kamar, and Magerer Langat abandoned Raila for Deputy President William Ruto’s URP party. 

Decamped

MPs including Joyce Laboso who was re-elected as Sotik MP and Beatrice Kones who lost her bid for Bomet parliamentary seat, said they decamped after realising resettlement forest claimants was not forthcoming.

Most Kalenjins who have invested in the Mau were either allocated or bought land in the forest on willing seller-willing buyer basis in 1970s and 1990s. In the recent years, the settlements have expanded rapidly.

Despite the commitment to halt destruction, logging and other forms of degradation is still going on with claims some senior Government officials in the former Kibaki administration were involved.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was mandated to head a joint security team to check logging in the forest. Administration Police and the defunct Narok County Council rangers were put under the command of KWS.

Narok County Commissioner Scolastica Koskei recently blamed KWS and other security agencies for not doing enough to stop destruction of the water tower especially Enoosupukia zone.

Nick Murero, the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem Lake Victoria Basin Co-ordinator, says Kenyans, ecologists, and environmentalists are apprehensive if the new Government would stop the ruin of the Mau and other water towers, adding that since the Jubilee Alliance took power, new settlements in Mau, Enoosupukia and other forests have sprung up.

Last month, Narok South DC Chimwaga Mongo directed squatters who had invaded part of the Maasai Mau forest which is under the Kenya Forest Service management to move out or be forcefully evicted.

“We have raised alarm over fresh invasion of Mau and other forests vital to national economy. Kenyans are watching to see if Uhuru will be a captive of vested interests or if he will bite the bullet and save them,” said Murero.

Trooped back

He says a Sh261 million initiative by The Clinton Foundation to rehabilitate Enoosupukia has been frustrated by politicians whose supporters have trooped back to the forest and are causing massive destruction. The project has since been halted.

“The project was frustrated at an early stage by the defunct Narok County Council, acting at the behest of then local powerful politicians. It is now up to the new county government to convince the foundation that it is committed to the work, otherwise, the remaining part of the 20,000 hectare forest will disappear,” he adds.

The National Environment Management Authority has said despite funding various community projects aimed at increasing the forest cover in Mau and other forests, nothing has been done and claims that boundaries of a group ranch neighbouring Enoosupukia have been extended to the forest where about 300 families were evicted in 1992 by the local county council.

Daniel Kobei, a spokesperson for the Ogiek community which claims the forest is their ancestral land, argues that they have been conserving the water tower.

Political interference

“The community which has lived in the forest since time immemorial is known to be conservationists. We should not be seen as destructors. It is time we are absolved from the blame that we played a role in degradation of Mau,” adds Kobei.

Efforts by Ewaso Nyiro South Development to rehabilitate a section of Mau reportedly did not yield much because of political interference.

The spokesperson of the settlers, Mr William Cheruiyot says they are ready to leave the forest, if they are compensated at market rates or settled on productive land.

“The assumption that we want to live in the forest forever is misplaced. We are ready to leave if we are adequately compensated,” he says and blames the defunct Narok County Council of duping to buy the land.

The invasion of the forest started when several group ranches were being sub divided for individual ownership. Boundaries of the ranches were extended deep inside the forest.