Economy

Uproar as State plans to lift ban on Mau land sale

ruto

Deputy President William Ruto. file photo | nmg

Deputy President William Ruto’s announcement of government plan to lift ban on land transactions in Mau Forest has sparked an uproar amid concerns it could hurt rehabilitation of Kenya’s biggest closed-canopy forest.

The Ogiek Council of Elders has asked the deputy president to first form a national multi-stakeholder committee to address contentious ownership of controversial forest land.

“Lifting of the caveat will promote injustice against the community as we are laying claim to expansive parcels of land around Mau Forest,” the council of elders chairman Mr Joseph Towett said at an interview with Business Daily in Nakuru town.

While on a tour of Narok, the DP assured those in settlement areas not to worry as “no one would evict them.”

Mr Ruto told residents they were free to build permanent houses in the contested areas, receiving support from Narok Governor Samuel Tunai, who has been pushing for the lifting of the caveat on land that was part of the Mau Complex in 2008.

Experts say the Mau Complex had lost some 107,000 hectares (264,400 acres) — about a quarter —of its trees over the last two decades due to illegal settlement, logging and charcoal burning encouraged by corrupt officials.

This has threatened energy generation, tourism, agriculture and water supplies to cities and industries.

Mau was subdivided into 22 blocks by human settlement over the last century. But the real devastation began in 1997 when large plots were dished out by the government of former President Daniel arap Moi to win votes during elections.

Those opposed to Mau land dealings say the lifting of the caveat is aimed at wooing the Maasai and Kipsigis communities to support the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee.

Raila Odinga, then Prime Minister, was the government’s face behind the caveat, setting him up against his former right-hand man and then Agriculture Minister, Mr Ruto.