Mau settlers anxious over impending eviction

According to Mr Tuimising, he cannot contemplate pulling down his house and other structures in the farm “and moving out to the camps like IDPs.”

Mr Regina Kiptarayia, 52, a resident of Kiptunga argued that the notice has taken the settlers by surprise but they are not yet ready to surrender the land back to the government.

Mrs Kiptarayiat says her family and others in the area have been in the forest from time immemorial. The Kibaki government moved in 2005 and issued them with title deeds, officially recognising them as legal owners of the land.

“What has changed in the same government that was singing a different song in 2005 and now singing a different one now, we don’t understand,” she said.

Mr Nahashon Kiptoo of Korao Farm in Kuresoi district feels that the notice was a political instigation by some powerful individuals in the coalition government to punish members of one community.

“The notice is instigated by some politicians in this government who are trying to settle their differences in expense of the local mwananchi and we will not move out,” he said.

Mr Kiptoo said the notice is uncalled for, wondering where they will do with their crops that are yet to mature and their children who are either doing exams or waiting for the exams.

Mr Kiptoo said that he had been duped by powerful individuals in KANU regime who moved them from the equally ill-fated Kiptagich extension and told them to occupy any portion of land he wished in Tinet forest and would be issued with ownership documents.

He said he moved in with his family of five and carved out a piece of land in the forest and the notice will affect his family lives since they were born in the forest 32 years ago.

At Korao, another settlement scheme affected by the notice, a local leader, Mr William Keror wondered: “If President Mwai Kibaki gave us title deeds in 2005 why then are we being told to leave, what has made out settlement illegal all of a sudden,” he posed.

He said it was impossible for the settlers to leave their crop and disrupt the education of their children especially those sitting for their final primary and secondary education examinations.

Mr Keror described the notice signed by KFS director was not humane and that the settlers would treat it with the contempt it deserved.

Mrs Tapelkat Ng’etich, of Kiptagich in Kuresoi said the residents were ready to die rather than leave the forest voluntarily.

She blamed the government for causing their problems by allocating illegal loggers and multinationals part of the forest.

Similarly vowing to stay put are members of the Ogiek community who insist they have been residents of the forest and have no livelihood outside it.