Keriako Tobiko rules out payment for Mau evictees

Residents of Kipchoge area ponder their next move as State officials carry out evictions. Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko says those who sold land and those who bought it may be deemed to be co-conspirators. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • According to Mr Tobiko, compensating the evictees is wrong as it would mean regarding those who bought forest land as innocent victims.

  • The government has declared most title deeds held by forest dwellers null and void.

  • The ministry says 1,089 people who originally got land within the forest, excised the parcels and later sold or transferred them.

  • Pressure is mounting on the government to arrest individuals who encroached on the forest before selling the land.

The government has ruled out compensating Maasai Mau forest evictees and instead directed them to seek payment from those who sold them land.

Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko said compensating the families “is tantamount to validating an illegality”.

This recommendation is contained in an August report, which was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

According to Mr Tobiko, compensating the evictees is wrong as it would mean regarding those who bought forest land as innocent victims.

The government has declared most title deeds held by forest dwellers null and void.

Mr Tobiko said the Constitution does not extend ownership rights to property acquired illegally.

DISPUTE

“From the evidence and the long history of the Maasai Mau issue, the people who bought the land cannot plead innocence. Liability to compensate, whether by paying money or land, cannot be the burden of the government,” the report by the Environment Ministry says.

“Illegal settlement cannot be validated/formalised because there is no basis in law and it will be detrimental to the environment and livelihoods. Those persons with purported titles must surrender them within the time given for cancellation.”

The new move is likely to set the stage for another dispute as some politicians have been demanding compensation for those residents said to have genuine title deeds.

An alternative, the leaders say, is to ignore the eviction altogether.

The ministry says 1,089 people who originally got land within the forest, excised the parcels and later sold or transferred them.

The rip-off was masterminded by powerful and prominent individuals who later disappeared.

BUY PLOTS

Many people sold land in their native areas to buy plots in the Mau “because land was very cheap”.

In interviews with the Nation, the settlers said they bought land in Sierra Leone and Kipchoge areas of the forest from prominent Narok County families.

But these “original” owners are not off the hook yet, as the report recommends that they be investigated and held criminally culpable.

“They cannot argue that they were not aware this was forest land. Those who sold the land and those who bought it may be deemed to be conspirators,” the document adds.

Government officers who facilitated the fraudulent acquisition of forest land should also be held criminally culpable, the report adds.

Pressure is mounting on the government to arrest individuals who encroached on the forest before selling the land.

GENUINE TITLE DEEDS

Mr Tobiko’s report appears to overrule that of Kenya Water Towers Agency, which indicates that when verification of landowners was done in 2009, only 430 settlers had genuine title deeds.

The ongoing eviction is to pave the way for conservation of the 46,000-hectare forest, which is one of the 23 blocks of the Mau complex.

More than 40,000 settlers have refused to leave the forest.

Maasai Mau is the most threatened block of the complex.

Mr Tobiko’s report singles out encroachment, commercial charcoal burning and illegal logging as the major threats facing Masai Mau forest, whose impact has been frequent floods, droughts, reduced river flows, food shortages, poor land productivity, among others.

Encroachment started in the 1970s when the government declared five adjudication sections in the north of Olposimoru and Maasai Mau forest.

GROUP RANCHES

The adjudication of group ranches, which took place in 1999, led to the extension of boundaries, culminating in a 17,101ha in excess, according to the minister.

It later emerged that those who first bought the land divided it and sold the pieces to “outsiders” even without title deeds while some settlers got the documents.

It is this unending chain that could see thousands lose homes, property and even land they thought was legally owned.

When the boundary was created, Nyayo Tea Zone corporation planted purple tea in a 25-kilometre area.

That created a zone to separate Maasai Mau forest, under Narok County, and Olposimoru forest that is managed by the Kenya Forest Service.

But the Environment Ministry says the boundary was ill advised as it did not serve the intended purpose. It wants to do away with it.

REHABILITATION

Other recommendations include the restoration and rehabilitation of the degraded areas and fencing of the entire forest to stop grabbing.

This year’s Phase One eviction has succeeded in the removal of 2,400 settlers from Nkoben to Kass FM areas.

About 4,500 hectares have been recovered. Phase Two will be in the Sierra- Leone section, which covers 10,092ha.

The government explored three options in dealing with the forest encroachment.

WATER TOWERS

These were maintaining the status quo and formalise a excision that would see people settle on their pieces of land, compensation and removal without compensation.

The first option was considered impracticable because it would heighten the clamour for excision of encroached water towers, to the detriment of the current and future generations as well as heighten already existing tension between communities.

Compensation was ruled out because of costs and paying for illegally acquired land is unlawful.