Leave camp

The government says it will not allow camps along the Mau Forest cut line and is instead advising evicted squatters in make shift structures to go back to their original homes.

According to Special Programmes PS Ali Mohammed, though the government has undertaken to assist the affected families in their current state, they will eventually be required to move back to their ancestral homes.

The announcement comes amid criticism from a cross section of political leaders directed at those bent on inciting the evictees.

The PS who toured six transit camps housing over 2000 families said the government was not ready for another IDPS crisis.

Mohammed said the government will do all in its powers to relocate the former mau settlers to their original homes and urged the communities to make their comeback comfortable.

He donated food and other basic items such as beddings worth 7.2 million shillings to the 1694 families living in the camps.

Representatives of the displaced families appealed to the government to resettle them elsewhere saying that they did not have anywhere to go.

Elsewhere, Minister for Agriculture William Ruto has termed politicians advocating for the Mau forest evictions as selfish.

Speaking during a fundraising at the Kitale Show ground, Ruto accused Forestry and Wildlife Minister Dr. Noah Wekesa of being a tribalist, by telling Mau residents to go back to where they came from.

He said such statements can incite wananchi to fight among themselves.

The minister asked the government to fulfill its compensation promise to the Mau settlers, saying women and children evicted from the forest were suffering due to lack of food, shelter and medication.

Legislators Jeremiah Kioni and Peter Kenneth advised Rift Valley leaders to desist from volatile statements that might push the situation out of hand saying the evictions are of environmental benefit to the whole country.