Nairobi — The government plans to deploy more security officers in the Mau forest amid threats by local politicians to lead evicted settlers back into the forest.

Forestry and Wildlife minister Noah Wekesa Thursday said that the Ministry will send Kenya Wildlife Service rangers to the area from Monday to reinforce the Kenya Forestry Service rangers, who have been conducting the operation to evict settlers from the water catchment.

Dr Wekesa said the government had followed the law by giving the settlers a 14-day notice to vacate the area, adding that any settler who defied the government order to relocate would face the law.

"The law provides a lacuna for the government to arrest and prosecute anybody who breaks that law," he said.

Last Monday, the government moved to evict those who were still living in the forest following the expiry of a 14-day vacation notice.

The evictions started in South Western Mau, where the government said those without titles had settled.

But some Rift Valley MPs accused the government of conducting the exercise inhumanely, with some launching personal attacks on Prime Minister Raila Odinga who is coordinating the restoration of the Mau Forest Complex.

And on Wednesday, some MPs threatened to rally squatters to return to the forest within12 days unless the government identified land on which they would be resettled.

But on Thursday, Dr Wekesa insisted that the settlers, who had encroached on South Western Mau, did not have any titles and had been cheated to settle in the forest.

He accused the politicians of frustrating the government's resolve to restore the Mau.

"Politicians from the region visit the area daily inciting the people and urging them not to move until the government gives them alternative land," he said, adding that resettlement should not be used as a condition to move out as there were existing government procedures for the landless to apply for resettlement.

He said the government would compensate - by land or cash - only those holding genuine title deeds, but humanitarian assistance would be given to only registered settlers who have moved out of the forest.

"The government requests all those who have moved out without registering to do so with immediate effect. Government assistance is for genuine settlers who have moved out of the forest and their names recorded."

He said that the government would ensure that the area that had been vacated remained so to enable tree planting to start.