• The poor were lured to water catchment areas such as the Mau, Aberdares, Mt Kenya and Mt Elgon to cover up for leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi, who have settled on large tracks of land that have been cleared for tea plantations
• It is hypocritical and unacceptable to evict poor settlers without mentioning the greed and guilt of leaders who use the poor to defend these huge beneficiaries.
As the world and Kenya titter on the blink of a natural calamity that is threatening to make the earth uninhabitable, the blame for illegal settlement on water towers does not lie on the poor.
The poor were lured to water catchment areas such as the Mau, Aberdares, Mt Kenya and Mt Elgon to cover up for leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi, who have settled on large tracks of land that have been cleared for tea plantations.
The truth is that as poor settlers are blamed for their illegal settlement and leaders fight for them to be spared, compensated or forgiven, the real beneficiaries of this defense of so-called innocent settlers are presidents Kenyatta and Moi, former and current MPs, ministers and top civil servants, all who have settled on more land than all the poor settlers put together. Their illegal settlement and possible eviction is never mentioned.
Although leaders are absolved of their guilt by their power, the truth is that it is hypocritical and unacceptable to evict poor settlers without mentioning the greed and guilt of leaders who use the poor to defend these huge beneficiaries.
While we saw brutal, cruel and inhuman of eviction of poor Kenyans without sparing their schools, houses, hospitals and churches supposedly for protection of Dundori, Bahati, Rugongo, Elburgon and Likia forests, where workers had grown and protected forests for decades, settlers on water towers whether paupers or leaders must be cleared from the lungs of Kenya come what may. This is if humankind and nature as we know them are to be saved.
However, evictees must be treated humanely, not as a favour but because they are Kenyans and deserve civil treatment and all rights that respect their dignity and humanity. This is a right not a negotiable privilege.
But to prove Kenyans mean business in saving their water towers, all must start with the return of all lands that were grabbed by Kenyatta and Moi. For the land of the small man of Mau to go, the tea plantations of these two leaders first must go. If the illegal tea plantations are not ended to save Mau and Aberdare, there will be no legitimacy of evicting the common man from Mau or elsewhere.
Leaders should be first to be evicted and blamed for illegal settlement. Tragically, it is politics of destruction, madness and blackmail that always rush to the rescue of leaders. And because we take our leaders as untouchable, infallible, above the law and criticism, they remain untouched even when anti-corruption winds are blowing around them, not to sweep them aside but protect them. It is politics of dictatorship that incite and perpetuate illegal settlements where people are taken to vote for those who take them there.
EVICTION
Leaders should be first to be evicted and blamed for illegal settlement. Tragically, it is politics of destruction, madness and blackmail that always rush to the rescue of leaders. And because we take our leaders as untouchable, infallible, above the law and criticism, they remain untouched even when anti-corruption winds are blowing around them, not to sweep them aside but protect them. It is politics of dictatorship that incite and perpetuate illegal settlements where people are taken to vote for those who take them there.
When leaders pretend to save common people in order to protect themselves, forest guardians become poachers, how can those who own large plantations of tea they gave themselves in yesteryears give forests back to their tea farms?
We must say without fear that only good leaders can protect water towers, forests and rivers. Without good leaders and forest officers of integrity, nature, environment and life in Kenya will not be saved.
This is the time to save nature, environment and humankind. If we are shy to speak, we shall speak when it will be too late to save ourselves from hurricanes that will have submerged us into rising oceans.
The world must save the Mau, Aberdare and Mt. Kenya by raising resources as it is doing to save Amazon Forest, which is also our common heritage.