MP kicked out of resettlement team

By Vitalis Kimutai

Kuresoi MP Zakayo Cheruiyot has protested at his exclusion from the committee to oversee resettlement of families evicted from Mau Forest.

Cheruiyot termed the move "ill-advised" since he was the local MP.

"The people have a constitutional right to be resettled by the Government and they should not be subjected to further pain and suffering," Cheruiyot said.

Mosop MP David Koech and his Ainamoi counterpart Benjamin Langat said Prime Minister Raila Odinga erred by excluding Cheruiyot, terming the decision "an insult to the voters in the region."

"If Raila thinks he will make political mileage out of the process, then he is mistaken," Langat said.

Members of the committee include Roads Minister Franklin Bett, East African Community Minister Musa Sirma, assistant ministers Beatrice Kones (Home Affairs), Langat Magerer (Energy), Julius Murgor (Environment), and MPs Joyce Laboso (Sotik) and Wilson Litole (Sigor).

Identify land

Bett confirmed in an interview that the committee was working on identifying land to resettle the families as soon as possible.

"The committee is not opposed to any of the MPs (read rebels aligned to Ruto) being included in the team as the process of resettling the people is not political. It has nothing to do with the 2012 poll as some claim," Bett said.

Bett revealed that the biggest challenge had been to identify land for sale. He said proposals had been made by leaders, business people and landowners for consideration.

Magerer said they expected the first batch of the families would be resettled by mid-November.

"It is unfortunate that some of our colleagues are uncomfortable with the move to resettle the families because they wanted to use it in 2012 as a campaign tool against the PM," he said.