We are on the politics submerging Mau Forest conservation and the shame the humanitarian crises spurred by unplanned and punitive evictions has brought us. In July, as the eviction debate raged, I said I was for clearance of human settlement and that Mau was a matter of life and death. However, I added the caveat the removals must be orderly, settlers must be profiled before eviction, and it must not be indiscriminate and laced with tribal and political overtones.
I stood by those who prayed unlike in the past, there be no Government guns and fires like when Mr Amos Kimunya told us title deeds were mere pieces of paper.
Cabinet sat and decreed steps to be taken, including profiling in situ, mapping out priority areas for clearance and reforestation, and non-compensation for plantation owners. It also decreed, as recommended by Prime Minister’s Task Force, that the evictees be given choice of compensation and resettlement.
There were also fancy ideas such as securing fences and gun-patrol, and creation of Mau Forests Complex Authority, under Kenya Wildlife Service, to manage and protect it.
The Task Force made four unsettling revelations:
* Majority of the 12,616 title deeds issued to Mau settlers were by President Kibaki ahead of 2005 constitutional Referendum.
* Those who illegally excised the forest be investigated and prosecuted.
* Some of the settlers innocently bought the land parcels from influential politicians and wheeler-dealers.
* A quarter of Mau Forest had been hived away.
Eviction notices
Many were agreed there must be removals, but not travesty of justice. At no point were the mostly barefooted settlers to be thrown into the open, together with their children.
Then politics seeped in and glossed over conservation debate. Kenya Forest Service, which had been dormant all these years, put up eviction notices contradicting those of the Mau Secretariat. But even before the Government took the baby-steps decreed by Cabinet, ejections of settlers began.
Some ministers and even Mr Hassan Noor, who chairs the secretariat, started the song, ‘they should go where they belong’. One wonders if the poor souls we saw can really afford several land parcels. But why then did we not ask the IDPs of Rift Valley to go where they belonged?
My sources tell me matters got worse because of rivalry between Noor and a top Rift Valley administrator, and between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Mr William Ruto.
In between the political spats, humanitarian crises snowballed and as usual, our leaders saw it as another goldmine to drill for political capital. Positions hardened and today we do not even know what will become of the remaining phases.
As Mau settlers trekked out they called themselves GDPs or ‘Government Displaced Persons’ and some politicians decided they were IDPs and deserved a political fund-raiser tempered with ‘alliance building’ ahead of 2012.
From then on they became pawns on the political chessboard. Some even started lying they were only GDPs by day!
Gold diggers
Yes, I still support clearance of human settlement in Mau, but it should not be about Raila and Ruto, or political gold diggers such as Uhuru and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, or any other political scavenger.
We must remind these 2012 campaigners the Ethiopian teaching: "It is foolhardy to climb two trees at once just because one has two feet."
As I said in July, in my village meanders a dying river called Molok that was always swollen and crystal clear when I was young. Its mouth is in Mau Forest. It is dying just like the twelve major ones feeding our lakes, livestock and flora and fauna. The pain of seeing old women and children wading through the bowl of dust, water containers on the heads or backs, to dirty water pans miles away, sears my heart.
Those of us who grew up in this rural setting know the desperation of a family when the little water left in the pan smells of green algae and animal urea. The putrid smell finds its way in the watery tea served during drought.
It is such experiences that wrenched my heart when I listened to former Health minister, Mr Paul Sang, lie through his teeth, saying: "Rain comes from up (or did he mean sky?) and not trees. What will the youth he taught ‘water cycle’ make of him, a role model?
I insist Mau be conserved, but that is not license for settlers to be used as pawns and treated like common criminals.
The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor, Daily Editions.
ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke