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New forest
evictions start today
DAILY NATION
Story by JOSEPH KIMANI and GEOFFREY RONO
Publication Date: 12/29/2005
A major operation to flush out
2,000 people from the Mau forest starts today.
They have returned after being
evicted by the Government five months ago.
Addressing journalists in his
office yesterday, Narok district commissioner Hassan Farah said a
contingent of regular and administration police, county council
rangers and forest guards would be used to drive them out.
Since the High Court sentenced
Narok county council clerk to a six-month jail over the evictions
a week ago, the victims had been sneaking back on donkeys and
tractors, he noted.
They had started building makeshift
huts and clearing the forest for cultivation.
Mr Farah noted that an aerial
survey by environmental experts had discovered heavy destruction
of the forest, and cited the Ararwet, Nyamira Ndogo, Sieraleon
areas as the worst hit.
He appealed to the returned people
to move out voluntarily before the start of the operation.
Five months ago, the Government
evicted 10,000 people in an operation that saw seven primary
schools and 1,000 residential houses destroyed.
At the same time, surveyors from
Nairobi were at the forest to establish if the settlement
boundaries tallied with those fixed by the Government two months
ago.
Yesterday, the DC said that after
the surveyors completed the work, clear boundaries would be marked
to help stop further encroachments.
He urged politicians to stop
inciting the people and leaders in Bomet and Narok to keep off the
forest issue.
Last week, former Cabinet minister
William ole Ntimama was quoted by the media as saying that the
Maasai would use morans to flush out the people who had returned
to the forest if the Government did not drive them out out within
a week.
But four MPs, including Cabinet
minister John Koech, yesterday urged the Government to arrest and
prosecute the MP.
Mr Koech of Regional Cooperation
said Mr Ntimama was trying to drive a wedge between the Maasai and
the Kipsigis for selfish ends.
People who had returned to their
farms in Mau Narok had the right to do so following the High Court
ruling, he said.
And separately, MPs, Nick Salat (Bomet),
Antony Kimeto (Sotik) and Paul Sang of Bureti supported Mr Koech
and vowed to resist any attempts to evict the families.
They told Mr Ntimama to stop
treating the Kipsigis as second-class citizens, and dared him to
make good his threat.
It beat logic, they added, for Mr
Ntimama to incite his people against other communities yet he knew
that the acquisition of farms in Narok South was purely on a
willing-seller-willing-buyer basis.
"Our people have been
tormented for too long, and we cannot sit back and allow anyone to
continue gambling with their lives," Mr Salat said.
The MPs asked the Government not to
lenient with leaders who, they said, were bent on disrupting peace.
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