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Thursday December 1, 2005
3,155 Mau evictees to be
resettled, says DC
Standard, Nairobi
By Kipchumba Kemei
The Government will only resettle
3,155 people out of the 10,200 that were evicted from the Mau
Forest.
Narok District Commissioner Hassan
Farah said only those whose title had been certified as genuine
would be resettled.
He said a list of legitimate
squatters had been compiled and sent to the Director of Survey for
resettlement.
Farah said yesterday that the
handing in of the particulars of the evictees was done after the
completion of surveying and demarcation of boundaries between
group ranches and the catchment area.
But he said only 3,155 evictees
would be resettled because they had genuine title deeds.
Their documents, he said, were
verified two months ago.
Farah spoke as the settlers, who
were kicked out in July accused the Government of reneging on its
promise to resettle them in Nakuru and other parts of the country
They claimed the Government had
duped them into supporting the proposed constitution in order to
get their land back.
"Our fate is sealed now that
the Government lost in the referendum," they said.
The evictees said the resettlement
talk was a ploy by the Government to woo Rift Valley voters.
They said they had learnt a lesson
and would not trust the State in future.
Yesterday, Farah denied claims that
the resettlement of the victims was connected to the plebiscite.
The DC said the idea was mooted in
August long before the polls.
Farah said the resettlement would
be done in two phases.
The first batch of 282 to be
resettled in Nakuru would be given first priority.
The rest, he said, would be
resettled later because the Government was currently looking for a
place for them.
He told the evictees, who are
camping in various trading centres in Narok South and Bomet, to be
patient as the resettlement was set to start soon.
Meanwhile, two people were
yesterday arrested after they were found cultivating the Mau
Forest.
Farah said they would appear in
court today charged with trespass.
He said security patrols would be
intensified to deter further encroachment on the expansive forest.
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