File | NATION Chebugen Camp at the edge of Mau Forest where some of the people evicted from the complex are living. The government’s attention is on the reforestation of areas where there is no human settlement rather than on evictions.
By JULIUS SIGEI jsigei@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, December 31 2011 at 22:00
Posted Saturday, December 31 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- The forest complex will play a major role in the hunt for votes in Rift Valley though matters are likely to be complicated by voters seeking its conservation and others against the eviction of settlers
Mau Forest Complex, the country’s largest water tower that has over the last decade become a political battleground, promises this year to be a theatre of vicious political wars.
In 2002, the Rift Valley region voted primarily for Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who was being fronted by retired President Daniel arap Moi, partly because of the fear that Mwai Kibaki, then the opposition candidate, would not be sympathetic to the settlers.
In 2005, then Lands minister Amos Kimunya ordered evictions from the forests, leading to an acrimonious fallout between President Kibaki’s government and Rift Valley MPs who saw the move as persecuting supporters of the former regime.
In the run-up to the 2005 referendum on the Wako draft constitution as the government sought votes, President Kibaki allowed the settlers to return to their farms.
It was at this point that Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whose relationship with President Kibaki was at its nadir, endeared himself to the evictees and won their support, which later saw the region vote en masse against the draft constitution.
Euphoric levels
Mr Odinga raised this support to near euphoric levels, and by the time of the contentious 2007 General Election, North Rift voted almost to the man for him.
But the region’s leaders, led by Eldoret North MP William Ruto and his Chepalungu counterpart Isaac Ruto, fell out with the PM shortly after when he spearheaded conservation of the forest.
“We loved him and even baptised him arap Mibei, and instead of reciprocating our gesture he kicked our people out of their homes and into the road and camps and some have since died in the cold,” Mr Christopher Bore, a member of the Mau Task Force who declined to sign its findings, told Sunday Nationin an interview.
After Rift Valley MPs intensified their attacks on Mr Odinga, conservation of the 400,000-hectare Mau Forest Complex took a back seat to other politics.
In an earlier interview, a senior official with the Mau Forest Interim Co-ordinating Secretariat intimated that there would be no evictions any time soon as the “political temperatures were too high”.
“The political climate in the country is now high voltage, and this does not favour eviction. Please leave this eviction talk, let us talk about rehabilitation,” he said.
But he acknowledged that the restoration was way behind schedule, adding nothing could be done about it as the dynamics were beyond their control.
When contacted on Friday, the head of the secretariat, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan, did not comment on the matter, saying he would give a detailed statement when he returns from his leave.
But in an earlier interview, he confirmed that the government’s attention at the moment was on the reforestation of the areas where there is no human settlement.
Narok South MP Nkoidila ole Lankas, who has been at the forefront in rooting for the conservation of the forest, said it was unfortunate that such a noble exercise had been politicised.
“If you can allow a water tower as important as the Mau to be destroyed to satisfy certain political demands, then the country is headed in the wrong direction. My humble appeal to the PM is that he soldier on with this work to its conclusion. He started it, let him not abandon it midway,” he said.
Indiscriminate degazettement and encroachment on the country’s biggest canopy forest over the last 10 years have led to the destruction of some 116,000 hectares, which is more than 27 per cent of the entire Mau Complex area.
Restoration timetable
According to the restoration timetable seen by the Sunday Nation, titles should be ready for South Western Mau, Transmara, Olpusimoru and Maasai Mau blocks; evictions targeting the latter should have been carried out more than a year ago.
Another group of settlers, some of whom are still living in camps, were three years ago removed from South Western Mau in a manner that attracted a lot of criticism from some Rift Valley politicians and human rights activists.Some 15,000 people are settled on the 46,278-hectare Maasai Mau, which is Narok County Council trust land.
Mr Hassan had earlier indicated that after evictions from Maasai Mau, attention would turn to the 2001 excisions in which some 61,000 hectares were carved out of the country’s biggest water tower.
He said preliminary reports indicate that prominent people used fictitious companies to acquire land in the Mau in the run-up to the 2002 elections.
“Most of these people will not get a cent as they are not paying taxes, and their companies are phantom,” he said.
It is believed that the Kiptagich Tea Estate and Factory associated with Mr Moi would have been affected by this phase.
In an interesting turn of events, in August Mr Odinga appointed Mr Moi’s son, Gideon, to chair a resettlement committee in a move that was seen by many as self-defeating.
Some conservationists have blamed the delay in evictions to the failure by Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta to allocate sufficient funds for the exercise, fearing the PM would take the credit if efforts succeed.
Attempts to reach Mr Kenyatta or his personal assistant were unsuccessful, and there was no reply to a text message to him by the time of going to press.
Energy assistant minister Magerer Lang’at, a close ally of the PM, has told his Rift Valley colleagues not to politicise the conservation efforts.
“No leader, even those making noise now, would ask settlers to invade the forest. They are just resisting anything the PM does to settle political scores. If they are genuine let them solve the other cases of landlessness in Embobut, Mt Elgon, Marmanet and Maili Tisa in Eldoret that have nothing to do with Mr Odinga,” he said.
Bargaining chip
According to political analyst Kipkirui Telwa, the Mau has been and will continue to be a key political bargaining chip in the Rift Valley for the foreseeable future.
“In 2005, the region voted against the Wako draft as a way of protesting the brutal evictions that occurred that year.
In 2007, they voted for Raila Odinga because he rallied behind them on the controversial issue. You saw what happened during last year’s referendum on the new Constitution, and it will not be different for Raila in 2012,” he said.
It is in this light that Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka was photographed taking tea at a dilapidated Mau camp at the height of the fallout between the PM and Rift Valley MPs, he said.Mr Telwas said anyone perceived as being sympathetic to the evictees is likely to gain politically.
Mr Odinga has insisted that his efforts had borne fruit, saying he would soon launch the Kenya Water Towers Agency to spearhead efforts to protect the five critical water towers across the country (Mau, Mt Kenya, Aberdares, Cherangany and Mt Elgon).
But Mau Forest is also a hot potato in another sense. Leaders from the Maasai community led by Heritage minister William ole Ntimama and Mr Lankas support conservation of the forest.
The PM thus finds himself in a situation where he is damned if he abandons conservation and damned if he does not.
He needs the Maasai, Turkana and Samburu to counter the perception that ODM abandoned the Rift Valley after he broke ranks with Mr Ruto.
It remains to be seen for how long the country’s biggest water tower will be a political pawn even as its destruction spells doom for the livelihoods of millions.
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