From: barack abonyo
Date: 2009/8/4
Subject: MAU EVICTION: THE POOR MAN HAS NO WHERE TO GO

A poor man is the dust underneath a rich man’s feet. He cannot make any decision in a lawless situtaion because he has no money to higher thugs (police/army). The poor man’s only way out is a democratic government. A government by the people and for the people. Agovernement in which the rule of law is supreme. Of late Kenya has proven not to be a democratic government. Kenya is a governement in which the president declared himself the president, it is a country where the presiednt does not know whether an island belongs to Kenya, it is a country where the minister of internal security plus the major general is denied access to a commanding post. Sure Kenya is a country where a prime minister is spewing out eviction of the poor because of a political fall out with disregard to easier implementable plans for relocation of human beings and property.

The major thing lacking in Kenya is the the rule of law in Kenya. What does the law say about eviction of people? Did Raila/Kibaki/Attoney general/Minister of land look at the law before these eviction notices? No one respects the law including Raila, Kibaki and even the public.

Presidents Moi and Kibaki dished out the title deeds for the residents of MAU. We saw it in the TV and there are still achives of papers documenting this. The highest custodian of the law of Kenya recognized that the land belonged to those who lived there and presented these guys with documents to confirm so. They acted on their acpacity as the presidents. If this action is illegal and must be revisited, then it should not be done with impunity. Of course there could have been some irregularities but those must be dealt with as irregulaties.If the government was seriouse then this could have been a goverment program ochestrated systematically rather than politically. Things must be done with a view that human beings are not rats.

The fact that all over suddenly a common man who was handed a title deed by a president is a vilain and is being told that the the president was just playing a political games on you and all of us are yelling “Ya that is right, we dont care, kick them out” confirms how lawless Kenyans are. It simply states that as long as it does not affect “us”, we do not really give a damn. As long as it is not my mother, father, son or tribe it is ok to crucify another human being. No wonder we keep electing lousy politicians. Even those who can take time to read into history are taking a position of the now disregarding what happened in the past and what may happen in the future.

If one really wants to know the history of the Mau, it is all over the internet. Mau was not only distributed to the rich and famous. Many in the Mau are poor people trying to make little of what they have. It is easy for the government to deal with the rich who grabbed the land. It is the responsibility of the governement to go to court like everyone else, and convince the judge that the land was stolen. There should never be politics in this. The law should prevail. The government has not done that. All they have done is to tell the people that “We gave you the land illegally and we are taking it back illegally” And Raila has said “ya exactly that will be done and if it requires impunity then we will do it because river miriu is drieing”. Where is the rule of law in this? Where is the collective responsibility of common citizens of a country comming together to deal with tough issues? Why is it so easy to evict and very difficult to establish efficient and aggressive agroforestry programs?

Impunity begets impunity. For everyaction there is an action. Mau is not the only land that has been distributed to individuals by the Government. Raila’s father has huge chunks of land in Muhoroni that was given by the government. Indeed the majority of the luos were settled in areas ranging from lumbua to kipkellion by the government at subsidized prices. The Kisii were settled by Nyachae in the Rift Valley. Moi/Kibaki has huge chunks of land that was allocated to him by Kenyatta and he took an opportunity to settle Kalenjins in many parts of the Rift Valley. Kenyatta, the worst of all allocated himself so much land that he can settle a whole constituency on it. Indeed the land did not belong to him. He just woke up one day and fenced an area disregarding the community thet lived there. He went further and resettled Kikuyus wherever he could.

If the issue is allocation of land illegally, then all the cases including the Moi, Odinga, Kenyatta, and even many of the Gema noise makers should return land to the government. If the law is to be applied equally and has no limitation of statutes then a crime of 50 years old should just be prosected in a similar fashion as that which is 20 years old. Selective prosecution of crimes should be unacceptible to all Kenyans. All change minded Kenyans should choose to either prosecute crimes wholesomely or forgive wholesomely. Prosecution of the Kalenjins in the Mau in the public and political court while ignoring the Kikuyus in the Rift Valley as well as other previous allocation is tantamount to instigation of a reaction that in future may make Kenya ungovernable. Have we not learned lessons from our neighbor Somali?

And my point is, Imagine you were born 30 years ago in the Mau scheme. The only home you know is Mau. Imagine you have every document given by the government showing that this is your property. Now imagine that the governement has just noticed that your land is a water catchment area for some Miriu river and wants you to move. They are not telling you where to move and they are not giving you any money to buy any land. Imagine you waking up one morning only to find a bunch of police officers, army personnel and the PC burning your house, property and telling you to leave the area because it is a water cathment area for Miriu. I magine everything is gone. You have nothing, except clothes on your back. I magine you have a few friends who have suffered the same fate. Tell me what goes through your mind, Imagine the bitterness, imagine the hunger and tell me what you would think about your own governement and what you would do about it. Only those who have the experience of being a so called squarters being evicted from your own uncetral land would relate to the experience. Possibly the Mau Mau families may relate.

Yes the mau is a water catchment area but is indiscriminate eviction the solution? Is it true that indiscriminate eviction is against the law? Are there alternative approach to this issue including a slowly but calculated resettlement program? If people move from Mau today will we get enough water tomorrow? How about agroforestry programs? Do we have ways of using the land without damaging the water catchment area? What is going to happen to Kenya when there will be population explotion? Will we let human beings die and save the forest? Or will the rich eliminate the poor so that they can survive on the meagre resources?

By answering these questions you will know the following
1. We have a government who has failed to use the technology to solve her problems
2. We have a tribal government in which everyone is fighting for his tribe
3. Our leadership are mediocres who need better training
4. There is no law in Kenya. Every person will soon be on their own.
5. None of our leaders is planning for the future of Kenya
6. IT IS TIME FOR THE POOR PEOPLE OF KENYA TO RALLY FOR CHANGE

Dr. Barack Abonyo