Leaders faulted over evictions

Kanu secretary-general Nick Salat and former health minister Paul Sang on Tuesday faulted the government for creating a humanitarian crisis by evicting settlers from Mau without compensation.

They accused President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga for allegedly going against the agreement they had reached with politicians from Rift Valley Province on the Mau issue.

They said it was sad that the government had turned the Mau settlers into paupers. Speaking during a fund-raiser in aid of Mulot Dispensary in Bomet District, the Kanu officials said it was wrong for the top leaders to play “double standards” on the matter.

Resettling

“If the government was able to purchase land and resettle the IDPs (internally displaced persons), what is wrong with it buying land and resettling the Mau settlers?” Mr Sang said.

Mr Odinga, the Kanu secretary-general said, is on record during his presidential campaign in the 2005 draft constitution referendum promising settlers that he would ensure they would  not be evicted from Mau if he won the top seat.

Accroding to him, the PM was in the forefront agitating for the evictions of “our people”. The leaders lauded the Moi  regime,  saying during its tenure no Kenyans were removed from their farms and  made landless.