THE DAY RAILA CAME FACE TO FACE WITH HIS FIRCEST CRITICS IN THE SOUTH RIFT OVER MAU FOREST COMPLEX PLANNED EVICTIONS OF KIPSIGIS FAMILIES.
News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town.
THE Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga last week end came face to face with his fiercest opponents and critics in the South Rift.
It is understood Raila had moved top the South Rift with intention of quelling the growing opposition and discontent about his party the ODM. .
The PM, according to those privy with the information about the South Rift current politics came to Kericho with intention to patch up cordial relationship with the ever increasing opposition from members of the Kipsigis community.
Raila has in the recent past came under severe criticism by the Kipsigis people, a sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic group. This is the community which had given the ODM the largest number of votes during last year’s general election. It gave the ODM a total of nine MPs out of a total 30 MPs which ODM harvested in the entire Rift Valley Province.
The meeting was held at the Tea Research Institute, which is located about 12 km east of Kericho town and situated right in the middle of the controversy ridden Mau Forest Complex.
Some of the contentious issues about the 400,000 hectares multibillion dollar Mau Forest Complex is Kenya’s biggest forest block and East Africa’s block of closed canopy indigenous forest.
It is home to more than 45 different bird species and close 20,000 families live there. It is also the source of survival of thousands of Game animals in the famous Maasai Mara Game Park in Kenyan and the Serengeti National Park in the neighbouring Tanzania. s
The encroach has put to risk an asset worth more than Kshs 20 billion and is threatening the survival of several important rivers that empty waters into Lake Victoria.
According to informed source, the meeting was supposed to have been attended by all cabinet members from the Rift Valley Province, but none was in attendance except two Ministers, James Orengo (Lands} and Chris M. Obure{Works} all from Nyanza Province. The latter being the one who is currently acting as the Roads Minister in place of the late Ki[kalya Kones who perished in an aircraft accident in June together with the former Assistant Minister for Home Affairs Ms Lorna Laboso.
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But we have been informed by those who are privy to the current Kalenjin politics of survival that the PM was tricked into a trap by none other than his cabinet colleague William Ruto {Agriculture} as part of the wider scheme to clip Raila’s wings in the South Rift region ahead of the next general election.
After the retired PRESIDENT Daniel Arap Mo, the Eldoret North MP William Ruto has since taken over the mantle of political leadership as the new political king ping of the Kalenjin community in particular and the entire Rift Valley Province in general. Ruto, according to the same source is not “very comfortable with the enormous support the PM is currently enjoying in the region as he said to bge scheming himself to contest the Premiership or presidency comes 2012.
At the same time die-hard Raila supporter in the South Rift region have trashed the Kericho meeting saying it was hurriedly organized with intention of causing some embarrassment and ridiculing with ill-motive of making him seen as an enemy of the Kiopsigis who is out to marginalize the community in favour of the Kikuyus..
One of Raila staunch supporters is Lt. Gen {rtd}John Koech who claimed that Raila genuine supporters in Kipsigis region were kept in darkness and were not invited. Agwambo is still commanding big support in the region. But who invited to the weekend Kericho meeting were agents of Moi , Ruto axis..
Hose in attendance were MPs Franklin Bett{Buret}, Charle Keter {Belgut}, Magerer Lang’s {Kipkellion},Isaac Ruto{Chepalungu} Zakayo K. Cheruiyot {Kuresoi}, Benjamin Lang’at{Ainamoi}, Julius Kones {Konoin}. Also in attendance were two former MPs who lost their seats during last year’s general election. They include Nick Salat former Bomet MP and Pal K.M Sang the former MinIster for Hleath who had previously served as the MP for Buret..
Raila was served with a petition whose contents were not made public. But insiders said the petition was merely expressing the community’s displeasure about the contentious Mau Forest eviction and poor division of cabinet slots, the dismissal of Kipsigis people holding key jobs in the civil service, armed forces and parastatal organizations..
The leaders had threatened to withdraw their support for Raila and ODM in the next general election if he did not address their concerns.The leaders had alleged that the grand coalition government was biased towards the Kipsigis people over the division of the cabinet slots and the sacking en masse of their people from civil service and other quasi-government organizations and their alleged replacement by Kikuyus and Luos..
Apart from the Mau Forest Complex, the South Rift residents were also not happy with the power sharing arrangement in the grand coalition, the thorny issue of suspects of the post-election violence.
Although the PM promised to address those issues, the present at the meeting were not satisfied and left the venue very disappointed.
South Rift region has been one of Mr. Oding’as political stronghold, and given that he is the one who called the weekend meeting to explain the government position on a number of issues affecting the region, it was not lost on anybody that the PM is keen to maintain the status quo by way of reconciling himself with the people of the region. This is at this particular time when the region is facing two crucially important parliamentary by-elections to fill the two vacant seats left by Kones and Laboso
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The observers and political pundits were not amused, but accurately predicted that Raila’s mission was a quiet diplomatic and political manoeuvres to drum up the support for his ODM in the forthcoming by-elections scheduled for September 24th, 2008. Preliminaries will be held on August 24 in order to give the4 aspirants one month of intensive campaign for votes.
Speaker after speaker told Raiola in his face that the residents of the South Rift region were not happy with his leaderships.
“We supported you fully in the last general election and even voted out some of our best MPs because of you, but you are now being used by those who denied you victory to harass our people” retorted Mzee Bartany Arap Milgo, a highly respected Kipsigis elder.
Mzee Milgo was wildly cheered when he told the PM that the previous KANU and Narc regimes had the knowledge of the people’s settlement and were responsible for issuance of land title deeds to the settlers, and the community was now wondering why, it is Raila their favourite son who is being ill-advised to remove the settlers from their legally acquired farmns.”
Mzee Milgo warned Agwambo to his face saying “We shall mobilize our people not to support you in any future election if you allow our people to be harassed and removed from their legally acquired farms. We are closely monitoring your moves and intention,” said Mzee Milgo amide prolonged applause.
The elderly Mzee Milgo told Raila that the Kipsigis community which had previously made him {Raila} a Kipsigis elder and named him Arap Mibei{which is loosely translated as the son of the lake} will withdraw his eldership[p and stop calling Arap Mibei if he executed the eviction.” “There will be no need to regard Raila as one of their on sons if he betrays them over Mau Forest issue.
Raila Odinga who looked shaken and embarrassed sat pensively between the Buret MP Franklin Bett and and Ainamoi MP Benjamin Lang’at..
The name Arap Mibei is a moran’s name which was given to Raila by the community elders in the run up to last December’s general election to symbolize that he was he was one of their own. It servers the ODM perfectly well when the slogan became the rallying point of massive support for the party which scouped all the eight parliamentary seats in the Kipsigis land..
On complaints about the division of cabinet slots, Raila told the legislator who have petitioned the government over the cabinet posts that Obure was acting in place of the late Kones because there is nobody who has the title of a full cabinet Minister in the region. Charles Keter who is an Assistant Minister could not be made acting the Minister. The regulation requires only serving full cabinet member ot act in a vacant ministerial positions. But it will be rectified soon after the by-elections.
He said squatters have to be moved from the Mau complex, assuring his audience that they will be given alternative land to settle, and that there will be no police harassment.
Ends
Leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:07:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: THE DAY RAILA CAME FACE-TO-FACE WITH HIS FIERCEST CRITICS IN SOUTH RIFT
how come wangari maathai is not strongly speaking about the need to conserve Mau, leaving it to politicians who may not always be judged to be impartial?
I thought some of the millions were to go towards such noble conservation efforts?
The case of Mau forest is a very serious and delicate situation both politically and socially.
The social consequences of a depleted Mau Forest will hit the kipsigis people hard in their economic developement than any other group in Kenya.
Tea which is a major cash crop for the region and the country is like fish that can not live without water and the abundant rainfall which is experienced in the entire Tea region is as a direct result of the existent of Mau Forest.
Resent stastics attest to the fact that last year there was a decrease of rainfall in that region and that reflected on the overall lower production of tea.
If anybody were to protect this Forest, then, the Kipsigis would be the first but emotions attached to land issues, “the poweful people involved”, political posturing and fear of losing political seat is standing on the way of remedial measures that if not taken, then, the consequences with a devastating effect will reverberate far beyond Kipsigis region and Kenya as a nation. The livihood of millions of people in the wider East Africa depend Forest.
The negative economic impact is not limited to Tea farmers only. Tourism will be affected ( animals and other creatures), fishing industry and other agricultural activities in other regions will also be affected.
So, our people need to be educated and be made to understand that, continued human activity in the Mau Forest is bad for them (Kisigis) and anybody who is trying to stop and prevent further degradation of the forest should be supported.
Politicians are servants of the people and should be men and women who posses leadership qualities, whether these guys have sound judgement is open for debate.
It could well be a case of history repeating itself. Remember the late Mzee wanted the issue of land addressed as early as the first day of Kenya becaming independent but was fought by forces that were.
Infact the ruling elite used their community for support so as to cast the late Mzee in bad light yet it was the very same people that Mzee was fighting for. History tells us that many are still squaters to today.
Had they not taken the tribal fault line, the land issue that we are dealing with now would have been solved long time ago.
The same is happening now. By the time the kipsigis will realise the devastating effect of human activities in the Mau Forest to their own existent as a people, the damage to the forest and their own socio-economic development, will almost be permanent.
The political elite(politicians from the region) are now using their community to further their own interest by telling them (their community) that anybody who want them relocated from the forest is their enemy, yet such a person is working for their long term benefit. Time will tell.
Moving people from a piece of land is a very serious matter. The Prime Minister must not allow himself to be used to settle the very contentious piece of property called “land in Rift Valley”. Otherwise, he may be trying to bite more than he can chew. Tom Mboya was assassinated by the very people who used him to get rid of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Raila’s father. The welfare of the Luo community has never improved since that fateful “1966 Limuru Conference” during which Oginga was dropped from the vice presidency using the young Tom Mboya as a tool.
The people trying to placate the Prime Minister do not care about unity. They are only interested in one thing, neutralizing ODM and taking control of land in RIFT VALLEY and other land of interest in Kenya. They are also the same people responsible for Tom Mboya’s death. They are very good at using other tribes to control everyone else.
When the Kipsigis through their respected elder , Mzee Bartany Arap Milgo tells Prime Minister,
“We supported you fully in the last general election and even voted out some of our best MPs because of you, but you are now being used by those who denied you victory to harass our peopleâ€,
Mr. Raila better take a note that these people mean business because they are not going to be ignored the way other poor Kenyan voters have been ignored election after election while politicians are filling their pocket with foreign and local beribes at the expense of poor people who go to election lines to vote them into the office.