Raila’s meeting with Kipsigis leaders has put him in trouble with his Maasai backers.
ODM’s Narok North MP Moitalel Ole Kenta warned that if indeed Raila had accepted to broker a stoppage of the evictions, “then he has betrayed the Maasai community”.
He said the Maasai community in Narok county has always stood with Raila for his stance to protect the Mau forest and asked the ex-PM to come clean on the alleged deal.
“Raila will have to choose between the conservation of the forest, the survival of the Maasai community and politics. But if they will manage to stop it, no one should bar anyone from invading and sub-dividing Uhuru Park,” Kenta said
Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina was set to meet Raila last evening over the evictions.
He said both the Kipsigis and the Maasais have encroached on the forest but all efforts should be used to remove the invaders “in a humane manner”.
“The Mau Forest is an important natural resource that we must all protect and that is why I’m mobilising resources so that we fence it,” he said.
Since 2005, the Mau forest eviction has been a sensitive matter. It was part of the reason Ruto, then Agriculture Minister fell out with Raila who was PM in the 2008-2013 Grand Coalition government.
The conservation of the Mau complex was a Cabinet decision but President Mwai Kibaki took a low profile as his Mt Kenya MPs ganged up with Ruto’s men from the Rift Valley to wage political war against Raila.
When Jubilee came to power in 2013, people in the South Rift region took the advantage and started invading the forest beyond the cut-line that had been put.
