The government and politics have been blamed for the recurrent ethnic clashes in Mau that claimed five lives last week with thousands of people being displaced.
Njoro MP, Charity Kathambi accused some local politicians of inciting youths in the communities against each other to gain political mileage and extend their territorial boundaries.
She claimed that the attacks are aimed at displacing a particular community and extending boundaries for the group that supports them politically.
The clashes that have dogged the communities living within the Eastern Mau since the early 1990s have involved four communities and at times extending to Narok County.
More than 25 people have been killed in the region along the Nakuru-Narok border this year during the sporadic fighting that is often sparked off by land issues, cattle rustling and competition over resources such as pasture and water.
The government has been disarming the residents whose main weapons are bows, arrows and spears. They at times use farm tools such as pangas and axes.
Last week the National Government in collaboration with Nakuru County Government imposed a five-day dawn to dusk curfew to curb the latest wave of violence that affected 10 villages in two settlement schemes.
Speaking during a peace meeting chaired by Rift Valley Regional Commissioner, George Natembeya,, Kathambi attributed the recurring clashes to unclear government policies on conservation.
She claimed that the policies were being implemented haphazardly by the Ministry of Environment causing uncertainty among the locals.
“Some people were legally resettled through the Ministry of Lands but are being evicted through the Ministry of Environment all under the same government,” said Kathambi.
Kathambi claimed that there has been eviction against members of a certain community yet the government had not shown the forest cutline.
She took issue with the two government Ministries saying that none was committed to ending the ethnic clashes despite concerns being raised.
Natembeya asked the communities to maintain peace and wait for the government decision on the pending evictions.
He reminded them that fighting among themselves will not stop the government from carrying out its planned forest restoration.
“Your fighting will expedite the eviction so that the conflicts can stop once and for all,” warned the regional administrator.
He also noted that a certain ethnic group had been misled by politicians not to plan their families in a bid to increase population.
Natembeya told them it was unwise to sire 18 children per family unit without means of providing for them.
“Those telling you to quickly reproduce and populate the area are getting between two to three children yet they have the means to cater for more,” he said.
