The Mau Madness

So let us start with the facts.
After years of invasion of the Aberdares and Mau water catchment areas, and many failed eviction attempts, the Kenyan government and the National Environmental Management Authority came up with a National Environmental Action Plan Framework to be executed between the years 2009 and 20013. This was in accordance to the National Developmental and Vision 2030. In that framework various stakeholders tied closely development goals to environmental protection of various water catchment areas and other vulnerable ecosystems in Kenya .

Among the issues that were raised in the framework was that the Mau Forest Complex was being deforested at an alarming rate due to charcoal production, logging, encroachment and settlements. One quarter of the Mau forest, some 100,000 hectares has been destroyed since 2002. Other catchment areas are the Aberdares Range , Mt Elgon, Cherangani hills and Kakamega Forest faced a similar fate. The reality is that 5000 hectares of forest cover is being lost every year through illegal logging, encroachment and settlement of people in forest reserves.

Among the solutions proposed was to implement and enforce the Forest act of 2005.One way to implement the act according to the Mau task Force report passed by parliament and amended by the cabinet was to evict squatters, and even legit land owners from the water catchment areas and compensate those with valid title deeds.

Ok those were the preceding facts. Now the big question is what the hell happened. How come this issue has become so politicized?

Once approximately 3000 people were evicted from the Mau all hell broke loose. Most Rift Valley MP’s rose in anger and indignation regarding the eviction and decided to primarily target the Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Recently the Environmental PS had tabled in parliament a list of all the big land owners. The full list can be found on the Kenyan Pundit blog site and lists many luminaries of the former KANU government. Among them are the former president Moi and many others. Most were part and parcel of the now indignant MP’s.

So this is the part that I get really pissed -when I hear that Zakayo Cheruiyot the owner of 20.81 hectares valued at Kshs 4,161,184 or Gideon Moi the owner of 141 hectares valued at Kshs 28,352,254 and many other famous land grabbers are now the voice of the landless. The same leaders are now screaming murder at how unfair the Kenyan government has been. This is after years of grabbing any free piece of land they could lay their thieving hands on. The Mau list documents that thousand of hectares in the Mau were grabbed by the so called saviors. Why the pretence, why are Kenyans agreeing to be hoodwinked again? Hundred of thousands of IDPs were evicted from their homes, some killed and many brutalized. To date we still have most of those IDPS in camps. Where is the righteous anger?

Having said that I have to admit that the government did fail big time in how they conducted the Mau eviction. I really don’t know any humane way this eviction could have been done, but maybe having people move out of their homes to the roadside gave a lot of fuel to this political drama that we are facing, minister Wekesa and his callous statements, minister Shaban the incompetent special programs leader and not forgetting the Deputy PM Uhuru the minister of finance who forgot to allocate any money for this first phase of evictions. Mix that with the political rhetoric and peni mbili journalism, and we now have another political headache that may also come to haunt us in 2012. Remember in Kenya we bury our heads in the sand waiting for election time to settle scores. The constitution draft has completely been forgotten

Sadly, former kleptomaniacs of the infamous Youth for KANU 92 are now coming out as the righteous saviors. KANU the infamous party that almost bankrupted Kenya is smelling blood and starting to regroup. The Mau issue has become their perfect launching pad. Look at the leaders of the recent fundraiser at the Panafric Hotel. Most are just nothing but the remnants of KANU who somehow have managed to redefine and rebrand themselves. Most are now in parliament via many vehicles be it ODM or PNU.

As much as I feel bad about the rhetoric that has been directed towards the PM Raila his allying with the former KANU leaders has taught him one thing, their true colors. These individuals have no reason to care for Kenya . They robbed the country blind for 24 years, and are now back to make sure there are never held to account. And as usual we Kenyan’s are nothing but bystanders. And of course the media has become a major propaganda machine of the leaders.

Join us tonight as we talk about this issue regarding Mau and many other interesting topics at www.truthsayershow.com. As usual we will keep it so real, so truthful, and will never shy away from controversy.