Mau - Kibaki, Raila, Ruto agree

Kibaki’s words at the Mombasa Agricultural Show on Thursday Aug 13th shows that the government plan on the conservation of the Mau Forest Complex is as good as implemented.For the first time, the President spoke firmly on the controversial Mau Forest complex, saying that only settlers with genuine title deeds will be compensated upon eviction, and thereby going in tandem with the position so far articulated by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The President also instructed the Police and Kenya Forest Service officers to arrest and prosecute individuals rushing to occupy sections of the Mau Forest in the hope of being beneficiaries of the intended compensation by the government.Echoing the position of the Prime Minister who spoke before him, Kibaki warned that the government will take stern action against individuals who have grabbed forest land and wetlands.

Said he: “The issue of Mau has already been spoken well by the two leaders (Raila and William) and I urge then to act on what they have spoken. I also warn that those who would continue to destroy the country’s forest would be arrested.” The head of state said that those destroying forests should not be defended by anybody as they were doing so for their selfish interest and not for the benefit of the country or their communities.

It was Raila who set the ball rolling with his declaration that all illegal settlers in all water catchment areas would be evicted sooner than later without compensation, thus going against the desire of a section of politicians from the Rift Valley province where the Mau Complex is located.

The Premier railed at politicians defending the illegal settlements in the Mau, terming them enemies of the country whom Kenyans should fight at all costs. “Kenyans should rise up and defend the water catchment areas because even the plan of turning this country’s agriculture from rain dependent to irrigation dependent would not work if we encroach on the water catchment areas,” said the Prime Minister

He said those defending illegal settlements in the Mau are the very beneficiaries of the loot, but they would not cow Kenyans in their quest to restore the country’s water catchments for future generations. The Prime Minister who spoke during the official opening of the Agricultural Show in Mombasa after Agriculture minister William Ruto and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka had spoken, said: “Even with beautiful programmes as outlined by the Agriculture minister, the country will not be food sufficient because those projects depend on rivers whose survival lies in the forest cover.”

Ruto said that those who have settled in the Mau water catchment area should move out or face forcible eviction by the government.
“We in the ministry have put in place an ambitious plan whereby every Kenyan will be required to at least plant ten percent of his farm with trees. And those in Mau should now vacate,” said the Agriculture minister who, in spite of this position, has differed with Raila over the eviction and compensation plan for the Mau.

And in an indication that government is committed to a common stand on the Mau issue, the president also declared those rushing to the forest in order to be compensated by the government would be arrested and charged.

The Mau Forest complex saga has lately pitted Raila against a section of Rift Valley MPs who are opposed to forceful eviction of the settlers.The Prime Minister has reiterated that only genuine settlers will be compensated, a stand that Rift Valley MPs have been opposed to, demanding that all and sundry, irrespective of the legality of their settlement in forest, be compensated.

Because of these diametrically opposed positions, the Premier has gone on record to say that he is ready to pay the political price for his position on the Mau after the MPs threatened to withdraw their political support for him if he insists on forceful evictions.His strongest critics include Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto, Cheranganyi MP Joshua Kutuny and Agriculture minister William Ruto, but the latter seems to have toned down his offensive against the PM over the matter.