Church Leaders accuse Government of mistreatment of Mau Evictees

The government has once again come under strong critism over its handling of the Mau forest evictions.

In a statement, the South Rift Church leaders are now blaming the Mau Taskforce for the humanitarian crisis being experienced in the evictions of South Western Mau.

Bishop Paul Leleito, who is a member of the task-force, accused the task-force of failing to accomplish its purpose which was the provision of basic necessities to the evictees.

“Of special reference to this case is taskforce objective Number b where we were to provide for the relocation of the people currently residing in the forest. The government is creating this unnecessary crisis and is rendering people homeless and without food,” Bishop Leleito said.

The clergy laughed off at the governments offer of 38 billion for the restoration of the Mau, terming it as a misuse of public funds.

“Why is the government feeding the very same people it evicted? This does not portray good stewardship of government resources and I even wonder if the people will be allowed back into the forest to harvest their food,”

On the Draft constitution, the South Rift Church leaders said it did not address the land issue adequately, and that the country is now courting a potentially explosive problem in the future noting that the June 2005 evictions in Maasai Mau caused the destruction of property worth more than Sh300 million yet the evictees were yet to be compensated.

“Seven public schools and three private ones were torched, more than 7,400 registered land owners displaced and their property destroyed and the government has not compensated any of them,” he said.

Earlier the gov’tcarried out phase 1 of the Mau rehabilitation programme which consists of recovery of land which had been parcelled or de-gazetted but never allocated to anyone; consequently the government has been able to recover the Leakey Extension (530 acres of land) and intends to recover LR 25/148 land which is about 1050 acres. In total the land that has been parcelled, de-gazetted but not allocated is about 5000 hectares.

The government is now in the second phase of relocation and rehabilitation (South West Mau where 19,000 hectares of land will be recovered). The third phase will target those who own land in the water tower legally and it will also evict them. However these settlers will either be compensated with money or alternative land.