Rape of forest goes on as more dig in

• Country waiting to see how secretariat navigates through politics of eviction

As the government hesitates over the Mau evictions, felling of trees in the water tower continues unabated even as some opportunists are moving in in hopes of obtaining compensation.

Some settlers and encroachers are in a mad rush to build houses in a bid to use them to claim higher compensation while others are clearing away the remaining forest cover before the government moves in.

The Kenya Forestry Service zonal manager in charge of Nakuru region, which covers the entire East Mau, Maasai Mau and parts of Western South Mau, Joseph Gitonga, said forest rangers were impounding stolen logs on a daily basis.

Narok South District Commissioner M. C. Mongo said the building of new structures by Mau settlers was another ploy to influence the government on the issue of compensation after an earlier attempt to acquire fake title deeds was thwarted.

The government and other relevant bodies, including the recently established interim co-ordinating secretariat , seem to be reading from different scripts, throwing the restoration of the Mau into confusion.

While secretariat chairman Hassan Noor Hassan says the team wants to form a proper communication system for disseminating information on the Mau issue, the Kenya Forestry Service is already issuing statements on the evictions.

On October 6 Mr Hassan told journalists he had nothing to tell the media until a communications system was set up, complete with a communications manager. He said the team would also come up with a timetable showing the dates and venues of their meetings.

On the same day, the head of the Mau Conservancy under the KFS, Cosma Ikiugu, said the forestry service in collaboration with other government agencies would evict 20,000 encroachers settled in Nadham on the border of Konoin and Kuresoi districts, Olposimoru and Likia extension.

He said there were more than 14,000 encroachers in Nadham which is part of the Mau Complex. About 6,000 in Olposimru and another group of 200 people were illegally cultivating Likia Extension.

Mr Ikiugu said those targeted for eviction were encroachers who did not have title deeds.

He said the ICS was still carrying out an audit of Mau title deeds and other land documents held by the settlers.

On Otober 9 Mr Hassan was quoted as saying that his team would be overseeing repossession of the first 2,430 hectares of land in the Mau next week.

These statements don’t seem to have had any effect on the settlers and encroachers. It is business as usual for them, and some have vowed not to leave Mau with or without compensation.

Joseph Towett of the Ogiek Welfare Council claimed the government had set aside parts of Mau for the community.

He said the entire Nessuit and Marioshoni locations in East Mau and Tinet in Western South Mau had been given to the community.