Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho town.

UNCONFIRMED reports making the round in this town says, that some of the already settled IDPs and former illegal settlers in Mau Forest water catchment areas were slowly sneaking back and forcefully demanding that those who had been allocated the land by the government quit.

Some of them are allegedly returning to both Mau Forest and Mau Narok and other areas like Molo, Elburgon, Likia, Njro, Kuresoi and even in Uasin Gishu, Burnt Forest and forcefully demanding back their old farms. Other unconfirmed allegations say the returnees are always coming in the company of armed security personnel.

THe common saying is that with the new Jubilee government likely to be in office soon after the March 4, 2013 general election, even those who were forcefully expelled from their farms as the skirmishes of 1992 / 93, 1996 / 1997 and 2007 / 2008 are sneaking back and putting up new houses in some places where the government had already spent the colossal amount of money in reforestation efforts.

Our informer who requested for his name to be kept anonymous for fear of reprisals said those returning to the vacated land are members of the two communities, namely the Kikuyus and the Kalenjin, and that tensions is likely to go up in the region.

He said he had some information that even those former settlers who sold their land on their own volition long time ago before the tribal skirmishes were now demanding their property back in total disregard of new developments already made by new owners on such property. This, he added, is likely to raise political temperature by way of touching on old wounds.

New settlers have also been sighted in the Mau West and Mau Narok, Kuresoi and areas, while new structures have also
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