Deputy President Dr William Ruto has told the Masai community that he supports the controversial Mau eviction and that he wants all those in the water catchment area evicted even if they were his fellow Kalenjin tribe.
He asked politicians to stop politicizing the evictions going on in Mau
Speaking during the funeral service of Samuel ole Koriata, ex senior chief cum politician held at his Narropil home, Ololunga, Narok County, Ruto called for concerted efforts in the war against forest destruction.
He said Jubilee’s administration will continue to secure forests across the country.
Ruto said the Government is committed to ensuring all water towers in the country including the Mau complex are conserved as the only way to avert desertification.
The DP further asked politicians to desist from using the Mau conservation to pit communities against each other.
“The test of true leadership is finding solutions to challenges facing the people but not by politicizing the problem,” he said.
Ruto added, “We can’t continue to use the same means that got us into trouble to get out of there.”
He said environmental conservation is the responsibility of all Kenyans adding that it has nothing to do with individuals or communities.
“As Government, we know the importance of conserving our water towers and we have plans on how to go about this. Issues of conservation are not about individuals or communities but about all Kenyans,” he said.
Ruto said so far since evictions begun in the forest, some 2,500 people who had encroached on Mau forest have been evicted.
“As part of our commitment to environmental conservation, we directed that logging in forests be stopped and all those who have interfered with water catchment areas be removed,” he added.
The Mau evictions have in the past sparked off a political storm that resulted to verbal clash between Ruto and AU’s special envoy and ODM leader Raila Odinga’s allies.
This deepened after Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen accused Raila of masterminding the evictions.
But later a section of Rift Valley MPs dismissed the claims and said the drive to evict settlers from what is Kenya’s key water catchment is being coordinated by the DP’s office.
