Folks,

If you want to know why “MAU” is highly contentious involving “KANU STALWARTS”, it is the BIG NAMES who have BIG BUSINESSES going on in MAU. It has nothing to do with the EVICTIEES (even the money collected will not be distributed to the Evictees, keep your eyes open).

How come they did not act this way about the IDPs of 2007/8 homeless people (Hii ni njama). This “MAU” has become a thorn in the flesh, because it touches the BIG FISHES who have perfected the scare tactics of “Dont Touch Me Disease”, you do not disturb, the BIG NYANGAU’s are in the party FEASTING. This has created a severe health hazard to them, a condition that is too dangerous if left unchecked.

If you look at the shape of those “Man Eat Man” gangry Comrades, you will wonder how they have made it this far, how shapeless they look with trouble walking, they are all infested with a serious sickness called “THIEVERY” and are totally unhealthy requiring urgent medical procedure. This disease makes someone walk with difficulties from the protruding stomach with shattered thinking abilities the reason why they stay sleepy all the times. They cant think…..This sickness if not given immediate attention, is tantamount to mental disorders. This disease is an infectious airborne, also known to spread fast in the air like influenza.

This is what has affected “MAU Conspirators” and their mental condition is so badly impaired and severed which necessitates quarantine in order to prevent the spread of such disease.

Big names and soldiers next in Mau crackdown………Kasheshe!……..

Beware people!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

Check it out!…….

By SUNDAY NATION TEAM Posted Saturday, November 28 2009 at 22:41
The negotiations

An inter-ministerial committee has given its approval for the dispossession of powerful individuals who own land in the Mau complex. The decision sets the stage for a politically loaded round of dispossession expected to begin as soon as the Cabinet meets to discuss the plan, which could happen as early as Thursday.

* Sierra Leone soldiers to be kicked out of Mau

List of landowners
The big shots are targeted in the next phase of dispossession and evictions from the complex that will focus on a number of areas, including the Maasai Mau. The list of landowners set to lose their holdings when the exercise begins is a compilation of the most powerful political figures in the country over the last two decades.

Among the properties slotted for expropriation are the Kiptagich Tea Estates, widely believed to be owned by the family of former President Moi. Also in line for dispossession is the former president’s last-born son, Gideon. According to the names compiled by the government’s task force on the conservation of the Mau Forest complex seen by the Sunday Nation, Mr Gideon Moi owns parcel 46 of the Nakuru/Olenguruone/Kiptagich extension of the forest. His holding in this section is 44.7 hectares, according to the report.

Former powerful internal security permanent secretary and serving MP for Kuresoi Zakayo Cheruiyot is listed as one of the biggest landowners in the forest complex which environmentalists say is one of the most critical environmental assets in the country. The report says he was allocated 1,955 hectares.

Another prominent figure in the Moi regime, former State House comptroller John Lokorio, is named in the report as owning 23.5 hectares in the forest, the same holding as that listed for former lands commissioner Sammy Mwaita.

Prominent figures
Other prominent figures on the list are a one-time Kanu official Hosea Kiplagat and Cabinet minister Franklin Bett, who has been a vocal opponent of the proposed evictions. Mr Hassan Noor, the coordinator of the secretariat that is handling the process, declined to be drawn on how soon the evictions will start, saying he did not want to issue a statement after Prime Minister Raila Odinga had already made government policy on the matter clear.

“The big statement has already been issued, so I do not want to chip in with smaller statements,” he said. Mr Odinga on Friday said the government would not relent in its efforts to conserve the vital water catchment. The expropriation of property in the hands of powerful and well-known members of the political elite would be a historic development.

It would be the first time senior politicians are dispossessed of their land in a government-driven exercise, a departure from established political tradition where poor people are often the victims of forced removals. The decision to go ahead with Phase 3 of the removal process was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday, according to sources who spoke to the Sunday Nation.

Among those in attendance were cabinet ministers George Saitoti (Internal Security), James Orengo (Lands), Naomi Shaaban (Special Programmes). Water minister Charity Ngilu and her Environment counterpart John Michuki were represented by the Permanent Secretaries in their ministries.

During the meeting, a representative of the Mau secretariat presented a briefing on the progress that has been made in the last few weeks. He said they had begun with squatters who do not hold titles in hopes that the big shots, who own large tracts of land, would voluntarily surrender their holdings once it became clear the evictions were going ahead. This has not happened, and the secretariat suggested that it should be given the green light to proceed with the dispossession, according to a source familiar with the proceedings who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

Mr Odinga is said to have spoken out strongly in support of continuing the process. “The PM said turning back now would be disastrous because it would indicate the government is not serious about conservation. He also argued that it would be difficult for donors to take the country seriously when it keeps issuing emergency food appeals while the country is continuing to destroy its main sources of water,” said the official.

In an effort to avoid embarrassing confrontations with political heavyweights, officials from the secretariat and the Forestry ministry have begun an initiative to reach out to former President Moi and other senior officials so they can engage in negotiations with the government on ways of handing over the land, the Sunday Nation learnt.

“The hope is that they can send politicians and civil servants who were close to Mr Moi with one message from the government: can we talk on the Mau? The names that have been mentioned are (ministers) William Ntimama and Henry Kosgey, while another name that has come up is that of Hussein Dado, a former long-serving DC of Baringo (Mr Moi’s home district),” the source said.

The negotiations are lent greater urgency because the dispossession of the prominent political figures will be more complex than the removal of squatters from the southwestern Mau. Many of those targeted in the next phase have papers proving ownership, although the Ndungu commission of inquiry into land allocations found that the allocation of land to politically well connected figures was illegal.

The inter-ministerial committee is expected to present a memo to the Cabinet outlining how Phases 3, 4 and 5 of the reclamation of the forest will be conducted.

Compensation package
The memo will outline proposals for the compensation package to be offered as well as offer recommendations on what to do with those who refuse to surrender or sell back land they own, according to a source who attended the committee’s most recent meeting. Valuers have also been dispatched to the places targeted in Phase 3 and have reported that the value of the land has fallen sharply because there are few buyers, indicating the cost of buying back the land will not be as steep as initially feared.

One of the thorny issues will be arriving at decisions on what to do with the land registered in the names of a number of companies believed to be connected to former senior government officials. These include four companies whose files the Sunday Nation could not trace at the Registrar of Companies — Kelewa Enterprises, Kapkembu Tea Factory, Kaptagich Tea Estates and Ololarusi Investment Farm. Records indicate they hold a combined 18,102 hectares.

Writing in the Saturday Nation, Mr Odinga accused “well-to-do leaders masquerading as the peoples’ champions” and said their selfish interests were driving the efforts to oppose evictions. “Many of these well-connected leaders illegally acquired large tracts of land in the forest even though they now profess a commitment to the environment and have now discovered the importance of squatter interests.”

The Mau Forest complex is the largest of Kenya’s water towers. The 400,000- square hectare area is the size of the Mt Kenya and Aberdares water catchment areas combined. Water flowing from the Mau Forest feeds numerous lakes including several that are key tourist attractions such as Lake Victoria, Turkana, Baringo, Nakuru, Natron and Naivasha. Victoria, Turkana and Natron straddle several countries.
Large-scale occupation in the complex began in earnest when former President Moi de-gazetted sections of the forest in 2001. The destruction intensified in 2005 when President Kibaki gave title deeds to thousands of people who claimed land in the forest.

The decision to evict people from the Mau was taken in July 2008. But the saga has turned into a political battle between Mr Odinga, who backs the evictions, and Agriculture minister William Ruto, who is critical of the way the evictions are being conducted. The seizure of land claimed by key figures in the Moi regime may further widen the divisions over the exercise.

Reported by Murithi Mutiga and Lucas Barasa

Related Story:
Sierra Leone soldiers to be kicked out of Mau

By DAVID OKWEMBAH Posted Saturday, November 28 2009 at 20:45

Hundreds of soldiers who served in UNAMSIL, the UN peacekeeping mission to Sierra Leone, in 2001 are among those to be removed from the Mau Forest in the next phases of the government eviction exercise, investigations by the Sunday Nation reveal.

The military personnel are reported to have sunk their earnings from the mission into the Maasai Mau and Ol Pusimoru sections of the vast forest, the largest of Kenya’s five key water towers. Their imminent eviction adds a new dimension to the exercise as it puts politicians who reportedly sold the land to the members of the military in an awkward position.

The soldiers reportedly bought the land from a Cabinet minister from Rift Valley in the Ol Pusimoru area which measures 2,900 square hectares. One of the villages in the Ol Pusimoru area is named Sierra Leone in reference to the country where the soldiers served.

Phase 3
Maasai Mau, which measures 20,400 square hectares, and Ol Pusimoru are in the third phase of the evictions that are to begin once the government has concluded the removals from southwestern Mau. Unlike the holdings in southwestern Mau, those in Phase 3 have title deeds although the forest was not set aside for settlement.

The first phase of the Mau Forest Reserve excised in 2001 has already been reclaimed by the government as it was not occupied and had not been parcelled. It included Likia extension (530 square hectares), Mariashoni (2,950 square hectares) and LR 25148 (1,050 square hectares).

The revelations come two weeks after the government began evicting illegal occupants from the Mau Forest. The spokesman for the Department of Defence Bogita Ongeri said the issue had nothing to do with the military as the soldiers who bought land in the forest had done so as individuals.

“We don’t have records of where soldiers invest their money, and if they bought land in the Mau it is a private issue,” Mr Ongeri said. But information gathered from interviews with people familiar with happenings in the Mau indicates that the soldiers who invested their money in the Mau have realised that they may have been duped to buy protected forest land.

“Some of them are already asking hard questions,” a source on the committee given the task of reclaiming the forest told the Sunday Nation. While the former soldiers are apprehensive about their status, fresh details have emerged on how some of the people who encroached on the south-western Mau were duped with letters from members of the provincial administration into parting with their money.
The letters purported to allocate the bearer five acres in the forest which had not been degazetted. Close scrutiny of the letters, some
which bear the signature of the Administration Police Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua in his former role as the district commissioner in Nakuru, show that the plot numbers bear the same number as the serial number of the receipts given to the allottees.

But the allocations in southwestern Mau are illegal because this part of the forest is still gazetted and has never been set aside for settlement, a government document on the Mau states. Efforts to get comment from Mr Mbugua were unsuccessful. But the permanent secretary (PS) for Lands Dorothy Angote was categorical that members of the provincial administration had no powers to allocate anyone land.

The PS, who is on the committee chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga to reclaim the forest, said there was a procedure to be followed before government land is given to individuals. “There must be a physical development plan (PDP), a deed plan before a letter of offer is given out,” Ms Angote said.

Provincial administration
The PS said no one with papers from members of the provincial administration could lay claim to any land in the Mau Forest. According to the report of the Ndung’u commission appointed by President Kibaki in 2003 to investigate land allocations, politically connected people grabbed more than 4,500 acres of land set aside to settle squatters, including members of the Ogiek community.

The report revealed how large amounts of forest land was illegally and irregularly excised, and some of it ended up in the hands of undeserving individuals and groups commonly known as private developers. Mau was among those that the Ndung’u commission sought to protect. But while the government through the then minister for lands, Amos Kimunya, pledged to implement the report, nothing has been done so far.

The fresh information was gleaned from the distraught occupants by officials from the ministry of Special Programmes. The officials are stationed at Kapkendu camp profiling those who have moved out of the forest. These details emerged as the government held two crisis meetings to assess the reclamation of the 19,000 square hectares of in the southwestern Mau.

Amid loud grumbling from Rift Valley MPs allied to Cabinet minister William Ruto, the government is reported to have agreed to pay those leaving the forest a maximum of Sh35, 000 as “livelihood support”. The same amount was paid to victims of the post-election violence who have since moved back to their farms or have been resettled by the government.

By November 24, 2,948 households had been registered from southwestern Mau and had been placed in nine camps. An official at the ministry of Special Programmes, who cannot be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the majority of those moving out of the forest were from Bureti and Bomet districts. They are currently staying in nine camps in Kuresoi.

The PS for special programmes Ali Mohammed could not be reached for comment. A senior official in the ministry said those moving out of the forest had done so voluntarily and that information showed that none had permanent structures in the forest.