1 November 2009
Nairobi — With exactly a week to go before a deadline for those settled in a section of the Mau Forest complex expires, thousands of anxious settlers are grappling with the inevitability of eviction. A two-pronged plan in the past week has cleared any doubts on the government's determination to get the settlers out and start rehabilitation work.
Last week the Kenya Forest Service gave settlers 14 days to leave Saino, Korao, Ndoinet, Tinet and Kiptagich settlements schemes in South Western Mau. Three days, earlier the Interim Coordinating Secretariat on the Mau, the team charged with guiding the whole process, released a plan of action that would see parts of Eastern Mau and South Western Mau repossessed in the next month.
But even as things seem to be moving finally, a litmus test still awaits it in the form of whether the targeted settlers will heed its notice and vacate the forest. Signs that a challenge still lies ahead have been betrayed by the reluctance that has met a request by the secretariat asking the settlers to start handing in their title deeds at any of the 14 centres in districts surrounding the forest complex.
Only a handful of titles deeds have been volunteered, and it remains to be seen what action the government will take should the settlers stay put as most of them have vowed. To complicate things further, the State appears to have limited its options when it declared that forceful eviction of settlers was not in its plans.
According to Mr Hassan Noor Hassan, the secretariat boss, force would not be employed to make people move out or surrender titles. "We do not anticipate use of force. We have made an appeal to them so that they surrender the titles and move out as a gesture of patriotism and goodwill," he said at a recent press briefing in Nakuru.
A Nation team that visited some of the settlements this week came across settlers who have vowed to stay put. They demanded that the government halt the process until a proper mechanism to relocate them was in place and issues of compensation worked out. "Our fathers, grandfathers were buried here. Where are you telling us to go?" asked Mr Kelele Tuimising, 47, who reads sinister motives in the eviction order.
Time immemorial
He cannot contemplate pulling down his house and other structures in his farm "and moving out to the camps like IDPs." A resident of Kiptunga, Mrs Regina Kiptarayiat, 52, argues that the notice has taken them by surprise and they are not yet ready to surrender their land.
Mrs Kiptarayiat says most of them in the area have lived in the forest from time immemorial and were issued with title deeds by the Kibaki government in 2005. "What has changed in the same government that was singing a different song in 2005? We don't understand," she said.
Mr Nahashon Kiptoo of Korao Farm in Kuresoi District says the notice was politically instigated by some individuals in the coalition government to punish people of one community. "The notice is instigated by some politicians in this government who are trying to settle their differences at the expense of the local mwananchi," he said.
Mr Kiptoo claims that he had been duped by powerful individuals in the Kanu regime who moved them from the equally ill-fated Kiptagich extension and told them to occupy any portion of land they wished in Tinet forest and would be issued with ownership documents.
He moved in with his family of five and carved out a piece of land in the forest. At Korao, another settlement scheme affected by the notice, a local leader, Mr William Keror asks: "If President Kibaki gave us title deeds in 2005 why then are we being told to leave, what has made out settlement illegal all of a sudden?"
He said the settlers would not leave their crop and disrupt their children's education especially those sitting for their final primary and secondary examinations. Mrs Tapelkat Ng'etich, of Kiptagich in Kuresoi said the residents were ready to die rather than leave the forest.
She blamed the government for causing their problems by allocating illegal loggers and multinationals part of the forest. Similarly vowing to stay put are members of the Ogiek community who insist they have been residents of the forest and have no livelihood outside it.
Mr Paul Gugo Leswakei a resident of Kiptunga forest said the community has always depended on the forest and removing them would interfere with their livelihood of hunting and gathering. A village elder at Kiptagich, Mr David Sitienei, said those being targeted had title deeds. "It was agreed that they will be removed but first they must be compensated," he said.
"They must be given an alternative land by the government because they acquired their land legally," he added.
Forcibly evicted
As if anticipating a negative response, the government has followed up the notice with a visit by top officials to reassure the residents that their interests would be considered. Forestry minister Noah Wekesa, who visited Kiptunga forest on Wednesday with three other ministers: Franklin Bett (Roads), John Munyes (Labour) Paul Otuoma (Fisheries) and assistant minister Josphat Nanok (Forestry), told the settlers that they wouldnot be forcibly evicted.
The minister said that the eviction process was a long one that involved enlightening the villages on the need to vacate the Mau for rehabilitation. "You will not be pushed out like criminals." Mr Bett told the settlers to stay put until their interests were catered for by the government.
In the programme released by the secretariat, illegally excised but uninhabited land in Likia and Mariashoni areas of Eastern Mau Forest Complex will be the first to be returned to the government followed by South Western Mau where 19,000 hectares are occupied by squatters. This is to be done by the first week of December.
The third, fourth and fifth phases of the programme will deal with settlers who hold genuine titles to the land they occupy across the complex. Due to the sensitive issue of sanctity of title deeds, the matter has been handed over to a team of legal experts who will guide the secretariat on repossessing the land and work out the details of compensation.
"This is an area that requires closer attention as we are dealing with the sanctity of the titles," Secretariat chairman Hassan Noor Hassan said at a recent briefing in Nakuru. Once every area is cleared of settlers, surveyors will move in to demarcate boundaries of the critical catchment areas to prevent future encroachment.
In the report compiled by the Task Force of Mau, Likia is listed as having been sub-divided into 1,395 parcels and Mariashoni into 2,851 parcels. Whereas Mariashoni was initially earmarked for the settling the Ogiek Community, this intention was not met and vast tracks of land ended up being given to some 300 beneficiaries - mostly prominent individuals and companies.
Mariashoni is listed as one of the most critical water catchment areas within the Mau. Likia on the other hand was not meant for any settlement but was nonetheless invaded and shared out. However, glaring inconsistencies renders determination of the exact number of beneficiaries almost impossible.
All these irregularities sprung from the 2001 forest excision when the government cut off 61,586 hectares in the seven blocks of the Mau complex. Out of the 27,523 parcels created then in these blocks, only 18,649 are titled.
Reports by Mark Agutu, Noah Cheploen and George Sayagie
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