16 November 2009
Nairobi — The Mau forest saga has sparked a war of words between ministers barely two days after they resolved to end such feuds at a Cabinet bonding session in Mombasa. Two ministers and an assistant minister went personal with the Prime Minister over an issue already agreed by the Cabinet.
Ministers William Ruto (Agriculture), Franklin Bett (Roads) and assistant minister Jebii Kilimo (Cooperative Development) accused Mr Raila Odinga of seeking international recognition over the Mau at the expense of settlers in the forest. The three, who were joined by more than a dozen MPs from the Rift Valley Province, said the government had agreed that those living the forest were to be resettled.
Taking the attack a notch higher, Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto now says the PM did not even win the disputed December 2007 General Election, asking him to let President Kibaki run the government. "The PM was appointed the Tanzanian way and should not claim to partly run the government. If he has any proof that he won the election let him share it with us," said Mr Ruto.
Asked whether this public attack makes a joke of the bonding session the ministers and their assistants were meant to have at the Coast, the Chepalungu MP said the bonding was not confining. "How do you bond with people who do not keep their word? There was an agreement that the government will not move people and throw them into the cold as has happened. How can they say that everybody should go back to where they came from?" said the MP.
Nyanza MPs seemed to have prepared a rejoinder to their Rift Valley counterparts, but cancelled a press conference they had called at Parliament Building. Gwasi MP John Mbadi apologised to journalists who had gathered at the venue, saying they had to cancel it "because it could have been explosive". "After wide consultations, we have decided to cancel this press conference on the Mau issue. I would like to apologise for this," said Mr Mbadi.
The Mombasa communique the top government officers, headed by the President and PM, came up with was clear in its goals. The agreement stated that Cabinet ministers and their assistants will trust and respect each other, and any differences will be resolved through internal mechanisms.
"Cabinet ministers and assistant ministers will foster unity and cohesion within government by refraining from making adverse public utterances against fellow Cabinet ministers and assistant ministers, and those which could cast a bad image of the government," said the Mombasa communique.
It further states that Cabinet ministers and assistant ministers shall abide by the principles of collective responsibility, a resolve that Agriculture minister would not abide by. "We have no apologies to make for demanding that these people be treated as human beings. To suggest that we should remain silent rather than talk for people like these is to suggest we represent animals," Mr Ruto said in apparent reference to this clause of the communique.
The Agriculture minister said the PM should be held responsible for the humanitarian crisis facing the settlers, who have already spent a week in the cold, allegedly without food, clothing and medication. A statement signed by the chief coordinator of the Interim Coordinating Secretariat on the Mau, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan, which indicated that those moving out of the forest should return to their original homes, perhaps irks Rift Valley MPs more.
The MPs, however, claim that the people have no other home and that explains why they are now camping at Kipkongor. Elsewhere, National Heritage minister William Ole Ntimama asked Kalenjin MPs to stop inciting the squatters to go back to their farms in the forest, adding that they are acting unwisely.
He said the MPs are providing a recipe for disaster and ethnic clashes by demanding that the squatters be resettled on alternative land, without which they would be told to go back to their homes in the forest. "They are setting the stage for tribal clashes and a bid to exterminate all people. Everybody must be removed from the forest since Mau does not belong to them but to Kenyans and the world," said the Narok North MP.
"Rivers are drying up, lake levels are going down and we don't want a disaster for this country," said Mr Ntimama, who has been among the most outspoken MPs on the restoration of the Mau since he raised the matter of its destruction in Parliament 10 years ago.
Mr Ntimama said the MPs should not be branded as Rift Valley leaders but representatives of the Kalenjin, the only group they were speaking for. Mr Ibrahim Mwathane, a consultant on land, accused the MPs of abdicating their responsibility to Kenyans and the rest of the world.
"The Rift Valley MPs seem to totally misunderstand their wider responsibility to this country," said Mr Mwathane. Kenya Land Alliance head Odenda Lumumba said the lack of a clear policy on the resettlement has given politicians the opportunity to exploit the situation for their own selfish interests.
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