Raila moves to avert Mau fallout

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By ISAAC ONGIRI iongiri@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, September 11  2012 at  23:50

IN SUMMARY

• The PM held talks with the evictees and four South Rift MPs on Tuesday on settlement plans.
• The meeting with more than 100 representatives of the evictees from Kuresoi was also attended by Cabinet ministers Franklin Bett (Roads) and James Orengo (Lands), assistant ministers Magerer Langat and Beatrice Kones, and Sotik MP Joyce Laboso.
• Mr Odinga on Monday spent six hours in a private meeting with Mr Bett, Mr Langat, Mrs Kones and Dr Laboso to address their concerns and recent threats to quit ODM over the slow pace of the settlement programme for the Mau Forest evictees.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has moved to avert a fresh fallout with his Rift Valley allies over the Mau Forest evictees.

The PM held talks with the evictees and four South Rift MPs on Tuesday on settlement plans.

The meeting with more than 100 representatives of the evictees from Kuresoi was also attended by Cabinet ministers Franklin Bett (Roads) and James Orengo (Lands), assistant ministers Magerer Langat and Beatrice Kones, and Sotik MP Joyce Laboso.

Mr Odinga on Monday spent six hours in a private meeting with Mr Bett, Mr Langat, Mrs Kones and Dr Laboso to address their concerns and recent threats to quit ODM over the slow pace of the settlement programme for the Mau Forest evictees.

Caveat on land

Mr Langat had last week threatened that leaders from the region would withdraw their support for Mr Odinga due to the mishandling of the resettlement plan by the government. (READ: Mau evictees sway South Rift politics)

“I have directed the minister for Lands to lift a caveat imposed on land within Mauche, Kiptoror and Ndoinet for people who own less than 20 acres of land,” said the PM at a press conference in his office.

The PM also announced that some of the forest evictees would be settled on a new piece of land acquired by the Ministry of Lands in 14 days.

“We are sorry that this process has dragged on and on due to government bureaucracy. I plead with the victims to be patient as we continue to address this matter. Today, I want to announce that we are going to settle some of the families within the next 14 days,” said Mr Odinga.

Mr Orengo said that the resettlement was delayed as some of the pieces of land offered to the government had questionable documents.

“We have had to take a long time because some of the parcels of land offered to us had issues. But I now promise that within 14 days this matter will be gone. If I don’t do it then the PM here has the power to ask me to leave,” said Mr Orengo.

Sources told the Nation that Mr Orengo was taken to task over “lack of seriousness” in handling the matter.

Mr Odinga is also said to have pleaded with the four MPs not to ditch his party and promised to personally follow up on the progress of the resettlement.

On Tuesday, Mr Bett announced that they had withdrawn the threats to cut links with Mr Odinga as announced by Mr Langat last week.