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Don’t incite Mau settlers, Ruto
told
EA STANDARD
By Vincent Bartoo
17. 07. 2008
A Cabinet minister has accused two colleagues of inciting Mau
Forest settlers to resist eviction.
Forestry and Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa said the two ministers
politicised the issue.
Dr Wekesa said Mr William Ruto (Agriculture) and Mr Henry Kosgey (Industrialisation)
should educate their people on the dangers of their continued stay
in the forest.
"I wonder why my two colleagues are not telling you this and are
instead inciting you against the same Government they are serving,"
he said.
Wekesa said it was wrong for the ministers to discuss the matter
when an inter-ministerial task force had been formed to handle it.
He said Ruto and Kosgey were aware that destruction of the forest
could lead to the drying up of 11 rivers, affecting the lives of
four million people.
"If I cannot educate my people about such grave consequences, I
should not even be called a leader," Wekesa said.
He reminded the two that they were in Government when the Mau
destruction was taking place 15 years ago.
"They should be helping us clean up their mess instead of fighting
efforts by President Kibaki and their leader Raila Odinga to
correct things," he said.
The minister spoke in Eldoret as a group which took the Government
to court in 2001 to stop the Mau destruction also hit out at the
two ministers.
The group led by the Narc-Kenya chairman of the Business and
Professional League, Mr Kipkorir Menjo, said the ministers should
be bound by Government’s collective responsibility.
"They should know that they are in Government," said Menjo.
He said the Government should investigate those inciting Mau
settlers against planned evacuation.
Menjo alleged that some politicians had formed bogus land buying
companies that irregularly sold the land to unsuspecting Narok
South residents.
"They led these people on the wrong path yet they are now
pretending to be their saviours. This is hypocritical," he said.
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