Kabando slams Mau land owners

An Assistant minister has accused prominent personalities having land in Mau as using title deeds “as a decoy to give victims false therapy and  deodorise merchants of impunity.”

Speaking to the Nation on his way to Mau Friday to join Prime Minister Raila Odinga in planting trees, Mr Kabando said the exercise was a warning to land grabbers that “it is never too late to pay for your sins.”

The Mukurweini MP (Safina) said: “This tree planting initiative in my opinion is a bold move towards ridding impunity in our country. Saving the Mau maybe first and foremost an environmental issue… But it is also a critical political message and indeed a warning to public land grabbers that it is never too late to pay for your sins."

Mr Kabando called for a uniform application of land repossession grabbed in other areas other than just the Mau.

Hailing the government’s move to restore the Mau, the Assistant minister reiterated the President's call to all Kenyans to be part of recovering the forest from illegal squatters and land grabbers who have adversely affected the forest cover equation in Kenya.

“The former President Moi, who owns land in the Mau forest which could be equivalent to 10 football stadiums may consider his self preservation as efforts of forest conservation, but we all know replacing bamboo with tea plantations is a misguided attempt to do so,” he said.

He said research has proven that the 10 richest individuals in the world did not have to grab land or engage in corruption but they believed in ideas to create their wealth “and restoring the Mau is a perfect idea for all to engage in and create wealth for Kenya.”

He accused a section of leaders of using the Mau forest as a political chip that may further “marginalise a region to live in a mono cultural or mono ethnic colony.” 

He said today’s growing population of the youth group, political leaders need to create an atmosphere where the young generation will believe in something bigger than just personal wealth and invest in forest conservation for posterity.