Two Rift politicians faced off in front of Jeff Koinange on Citizen TV as they argued on the controversial Mau evictions that are underway. Cherangani MP Joshua Kutuny, ended up schooling Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot informing him that he did not have an idea of what was going on over the Mau eviction on Wednesday night, September 4.
“The person playing politics with this issue of the Mau is Aaron Cheruiyot, he is not offering a solution that will help conserve our environment and resettle the people.
“Jeff one thing that first of all I want to remind my friend (Aaron Cheruiyot) is that he is not even aware of what is happening in Mau, he doesn’t even understand this issue. This issue was sorted a long time ago; we have documents,” Kutuny hit out after Cheruiyot attacked Environment CS Keriako Tobiko over the Mau evictions.
According to Cheruiyot, the people living in the forest should evacuate but only if there are justifiable reasons to do so. For him, the eviction is all about power play and politics.
“The Mau issue is very complicated; we are dealing with a very serious issue of conservation where the forest that has been destroyed as a result of human activity and to a greater extent the timber harvesting business.
“However, the reason I’m mad with Tobiko is that he is taking us back to where were, we had sorted the issue of the boundary and all he needed to do was to ensure that he completed the demarcation; separate the people from the forest,” Aaron lamented.
Kutuny hit back and revealed the details of a plan that was in Raila Odinga’s office, then the Prime Minister, on how to resettle the squatters.
“Anyone coming to claim that demarcations were supposed to be done is playing politics. The government had sourced Ksh 18 billion to resettle these people, it had identified land to resettle these people.
“There were many organisations which were willing to put in money for the resettlement process, the government even went ahead and identified the places these people were going to be resettled. All these issues were domicile at the then Prime Minster’s office,” Kutuny spoke out.
Earlier in the day, Kutuny dared the DP and other senior leaders from the Rift Valley region to quit if they were finding the positions they hold too big for them. He accused the DP of doing nothing for the Rift Valley people who voted him despite him occupying the second-highest leadership position in the country.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator, Kipchumba Murkomen accused Uhuru of hypocrisy and neglecting the squatters.
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