|
Group kicked
out of Mau Forest
Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 9/17/2005
More than 100 armed men were
yesterday forced out of Mau Forest by police.
Their 60 semi-permanent houses were
destroyed during the operation conducted by a combined force of
Rapid Deployment Unit, Regular and Administration Police, council
and forest rangers.
Narok district commissioner Hassan
Farah said the young men, who were armed with poisoned arrows,
fled when they were confronted by the police in Olmekenyu and
Arorwet.
He said the exercise, expected to
take five days, would continue in Nkaroni and its neighbourhood
until all illegal settlers were flushed out.
Mr Farah said they saw cut trees,
adding that the young men might have been hired by timber
merchants.
He said the council would build
eight permanent security surveillance posts on the forest
perimeter to ensure nobody entered the forest.
At the same time, six rangers were
recruited for a three-month paramilitary course in Embakasi,
Nairobi, after which they would be posted to Mau Forest.
Hundreds of heavily armed young men
last week returned to the forest two months after the Government
evicted 10,000 people from the area.
|
