Ntimama accused of dishing out Mau land

Presidential aspirant William Ruto has accused Heritage minister William ole Ntimama of dishing out Mau Forest land to individuals.

The United Republican Party leader threatened to spill the beans by providing documents to prove his claim. The papers include minutes of the Narok County Council meeting that passed a resolution to allocate the land to former President Daniel arap Moi, among other people.

He said Mr Ntimama led the meeting since he was the chairman of the council then.

Mr Ruto said it is unfair to shift the blame onto some leaders from the Kalenjin community while the council minutes show that Mr Moi was among the first people who requested the local authority to allocate them land.

“The encroachment of the Mau Forest started in 1974. That year I was in nursery school. How could a nursery school child allocate land to his kinsmen hundreds of kilometres away?” asked Mr Ruto.

He said it was Mr Ntimama who dished out the forest land for his own political mileage.

It is unfair for Mr Ntimama to accuse others of being enemies of conservation yet he is the one to blame, Mr Ruto added.

Mr Ruto spoke when he visited Olposimoru in Narok County on Thursday.

But Mr Ntimama, who is also the MP for Narok North, accused the Eldoret North MP of pretending to sympathise with forest settlers for his political gain.

He said Mr Ruto should bear in mind that excision of the Mau Forest was done by Mr Moi’s regime and ODM is now trying to rectify the bad things done at the time.

“Let Ruto know that there is no going back but the settlers must come out of the Mau Forest,” Mr Ntimama told the Nation.