Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko said compensating the families “is tantamount to validating an illegality”.
This recommendation is contained in an August report, which was tabled in Parliament Monday.
According to Mr Tobiko, compensating the evictees is wrong as it would mean regarding those who bought forest land as innocent victims.
The government has declared most title deeds held by forest dwellers null and void.
The government has ruled out compensating Maasai Mau forest evictees and instead directed them to seek payment from those who sold them land.
Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko said compensating the families “is tantamount to validating an illegality”.
This recommendation is contained in an August report, which was tabled in Parliament Monday.
According to Mr Tobiko, compensating the evictees is wrong as it would mean regarding those who bought forest land as innocent victims.
The government has declared most title deeds held by forest dwellers null and void.
Mr Tobiko said the Constitution does not extend ownership rights to property acquired illegally.
“From the evidence and the long history of the Maasai Mau issue, the people who bought the land cannot plead innocence. Liability to compensate, whether by paying money or land, cannot be the burden of the government,” the report by the Environment ministry reads.
“Illegal settlement cannot be validated/formalised because there is no basis in law and it will be detrimental to the environment and livelihoods. Those persons with purported titles must surrender them within the time given for cancellation.”
The new move is likely to set the stage for another dispute as some politicians have been demanding compensation for residents said to have genuine title deeds.
An alternative, the leaders say, is to ignore the eviction altogether.
The ministry said 1,089 people who originally got land within the forest, excised the parcels and later sold or transferred them.
The rip-off was masterminded by powerful and prominent individuals who later disappeared.
Many people sold land in their native areas to buy plots in the Mau “because land was very cheap”.
In interviews with the Business Daily, the settlers said they bought land in Sierra Leone and Kipchoge areas of the forest from prominent Narok County families.
But these “original” owners are not off the hook yet, as the report recommends that they be investigated and held criminally culpable.
“They cannot argue that they were not aware this was forest land. Those who sold the land and those who bought it may be deemed to be conspirators,” the document adds.
Government officers who facilitated the fraudulent acquisition of forest land should also be held criminally culpable, the report adds.
Pressure is mounting on the government to arrest individuals who encroached on the forest before selling the land.
