A new song every day for political expedience

The controversy surrounding the Mau Forest evictions has seen leaders change tune for political expedience. Special Programmes minister Naomi Shaban is now pushing for resettlement of all yet she attended meetings hosted by Prime Minister Raila Odinga where it was resolved that squatters without title deeds would not be compensated.

Speaking last Wednesday during a harambee for Mau evictees, Dr Shaban said people leaving the Mau should not be treated differently from other internally displaced persons. She said the government will resettle all the people evicted from the Mau saying “every day we get special problems and we have to deal with them in a special way”.

Dr Shaban was, however, forced to eat humble pie the next day when she read a government statement stating the humanitarian assistance so far given to the evictees. She said Sh12 million had since been used to help the evictees and defended her move to attend the harambee that raised Sh5 million.

Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi, who in the past condemned the destruction of the Mau saying it had put the Sondu Miriu power project at risk, has also changed his tune. Only a day after praising Mr Odinga and Environment minister John Michuki for their efforts to conserve the environment, Mr Murungi told the Mau fund-raiser that some of the settlers sold their land before buying in the forest and should be compensated.

“We should not create IDPs out of that situation. We cannot come from one set of IDPs to another,” Mr Murungi said. Tourism minister Najib Balala who only recently said the destruction of the Mau Forest had a direct negative impact on the tourism sector said justice must be done in the evictions.

Speaking during the signing of a five-year tourism memorandum of understanding with his South African counterpart Maethinus Schalkwyk in Nairobi three months ago, Mr Balala said important rivers for wildlife were disappearing rapidly hence the need for the government to act fast to arrest the situation.

He called on politicians to stop politicising the Mau evictions issue, saying the culture of impunity should not be permitted. However, Mr Balala joined a group led by Agriculture minister William Ruto which has been vehemently opposed to the Mau evictions and criticised Mr Odinga for spearheading the conservation efforts.

Roads minister Franklin Bett is another leader who has since changed his stand on the Mau. Before Mr Bett was appointed Roads minister to replace Kipkalya Kones, who died in a plane crash, the Bureti MP warned that two-thirds of the animal species that live in forests will be extinct if destruction of the Mau continued.

Mr Bett said frost that had never been witnessed before had now hit Kericho, an important tea-growing area, due to the degradation of Mau. Mr Bett has since joined a group that is unhappy with the Mau evictions saying those being removed from the forest were Ogieks and had nowhere else to go.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey have also broken their long silence over the Mau evictions and joined those calling for compensation of all the evictees. Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and his allies have also capitalised on the Mau evictions to try and make inroads into voter-rich Rift Valley by fighting for the “rights” of those evicted from the forest.

Mr Odinga, Mr Michuki, Forestry and Wildlife minister Noah Wekesa, William ole Ntimama (National Heritage), Water Minister Charity Ngilu and Lands Minister Noah Wekesa are among few leaders who have been steadfast in their fight for the conservation of the country’s water towers.