• DP's allies insist the Mau settlers are genuine land buyers with valid titles
• The politicians challenged the President to lead from the front and solve the crisis.
A section of Rift Valley leaders wants evictees from the Mau Forest re-settled in the Kenyatta family land.
The MPs, mostly allied to Deputy President William Ruto also warned that the looming eviction could be the last straw in the Jubilee political marriage.
In a fresh twist to the plans to flush out illegal settlers in the 46,000-acre forest complex, the MPs asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to lead from the front and offer an alternative settlement.
The MPs told the Star that it would be unfair to evict ‘genuine landowners’ with title deeds while one family is ‘sitting on huge tracts of land’.
“Let the President donate some land to the Mau evictees. We saw his family donate some land in Taita Taveta. We will fight for our people until justice is seen to be done,” Soi MP Caleb Kositany, the chairman of Rift Valley MPs said.
In 2016, President Uhuru’s family voluntarily gave 2,000 acres of land in Taita Taveta county to settle squatters.
Coming a year to the 2017 General Elections, the move was seen as a scheme to appease residents who had for many years complained of historical land injustices.
The Kenyatta family is believed to be among the country’s largest landowners with thousands of acres of lands spread across the country.
UHURU FAMILY DONATION
In 2016, President Uhuru’s family voluntarily gave 2,000 acres of land in Taita Taveta county to settle squatters.
Coming a year to the 2017 General Elections, the move was seen as a scheme to appease residents who had for many years complained of historical land injustices.
These include land in Nairobi along the Thika Super Highway, and other parcels in Naivasha, Nakuru, Thika, Mwiki and Rumuruti and at the Coast.
The government has given the settlers a 60-day window to start packing and leave the water tower by October 31.
Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko has insisted that all encroachers must leave the forest or they will be evicted.
More than 100 Kenya Forest Service officers have been dispatched from the Narok county ecosystem coordinator’s offices.
They have been deployed to three camps in the forest to carry out the second phase of evictions, targeting some 60,000 families.
The 675,000-acre Mau Forest complex has been eaten up by land grabbers, some of whom are invading farmers, others the recipients of ‘land for votes’.
Unlicensed timber felling and illegal charcoal production are also taking their toll.
It is estimated that 222,000 acres have already been destroyed and environmentalists have warned that the forest will be decimated if nothing is done.
The Mau Forest is Kenya's biggest water tower feeding a dozen rivers and five lakes, some of which have dried up over the years.
Those people were there when he needed them, now he needs to be there for them and offer a solution that will not hurt innocent children, pregnant mothers, the old and the sickMP Kositany
The rivers power Kenya’s hydroelectric stations fuelling economic growth.
Many of the country’s most famous tourist destinations including Mara River rely on the rivers for their survival.
And the moisture trapped in the forest provides ideal conditions for growing tea, one of Kenya’s key export earners.
Speaking on behalf of the Rift Valley MPs, Kositanyi said the President cannot afford to ignore the cries of the very people who overwhelmingly voted for him in the last two general elections.
“Those people were there when he needed them, now he needs to be there for them and offer a solution that will not hurt innocent children, pregnant mothers, the old and the sick,” Kositany, a key Ruto ally, said.
Yesterday vocal Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi said the Kenyatta family should donate part of their land to settle the evictees as a sign of goodwill from the President.
“The thousands of acres of land they own across the country don't belong to them. That is not their land, it belongs to Kenyans. He (the President) should donate some 7,000 acres from the family to settle the evictees,” Sudi said.
Sudi said the children living in Mau must not be discriminated against just because they live in a forest complex.
“The children in the Mau Forest are like the children in the Kenyatta family. They are no different at all,” Sudi claimed.
Ruto has however remained tight-lipped on the looming evictions as his foot soldiers tear into a government in which he serves.
The DP is treading on murky grounds as he moves to firm up his 2022 presidential amid fast-changing dynamics in Jubilee and Raila's handshake with President Uhuru.
The DP’s dilemma is whether to support the government’s environment conservation measures or sacrifice it at the altar of political expediency.
If he will not intervene to stop the evictions, he will be seen by his people to be a powerless DP, confirming fears of his whittling influence in the Jubilee government.
On Sunday, Sudi cautioned the government to deal carefully with the emotive Mau forest issue or it would be the last straw on the Jubilee party.
"We're tired of being pushed and if the Mau evictions take place, then there will be no need for us to claim we are part of Jubilee anymore," he said.
He said the Kalenjin community has done nothing wrong to be targeted on many fronts by the same government it supports.
"We're warning them to tread carefully on the Mau forest evictions because it will determine many other things,” he said.
The controversial TJRC report had revealed how founding President Jomo Kenyatta oversaw massive grabbing and irregular land allocations for his benefit and to members of his family.
The commission found that the ‘willing-buyer, willing-seller’ land tenure approach was grossly abused and is one of the major factors causing disinheritance and landlessness.
“These elites did not even need much money to buy settler farms, as they were also able to raise loans from government bodies such as the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and the Land and Agriculture Bank,” reads an excerpt from the TJRC report.
During the 2017 presidential campaigns, Uhuru was attacked by his rivals for being a beneficiary of illegally acquired land by the Kenyatta family.
Uhuru, whoever, has dismissed the allegations and challenged those with evidence against his family or himself to come forth.
No one has made an official complaint.
Belgut MP Nelson Koech while asking the President to personally intervene to solve the Mau forest crisis, said the people being targeted are genuine landowners who hold valid title deeds.
“The President could donate land, yes. But what we are saying is that the targeted families hold valid title deeds and do not live within the gazetted forest,” the lawmaker said.
“How do we settle people occupying land legally,” Koech said.
He challenged the President to appoint another taskforce if he's not satisfied with a past report that endorsed the settlers' habitation.
The ruling Jubilee party is already walking a political tightrope as infighting in the outfit has hit a crescendo.
Similar evictions in 2009 coupled with ICC charges against Ruto cost former Prime Minister Raila Odinga the fanatical support he enjoyed among the Kalenjin community in the 2007 election.
While Maasai leaders have vowed to push for the evictions to conserve the Mau complex, their Kipsigs counterparts have warned against such a move without broader consultations.
The Kalenjin leaders have accused Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko of being using the Mau evictions as a political tool.
“Tobiko is already conflicted. Because he is a Maasai thinks that the Kalenjin population in the Mau is ballooning to affect the political arithmetic in Narok county,” Belgut MP Nelson Koech claimed.