Daniel Arap Moi is up for Eviction – Kenyans Don’t Be Fooled Reject these Nyayos
Nov 30th, 2009 by Mars Group Kenya
Kenya has had imperial presidents since Independence. All have started out as men of little means and ended up as tycoons. Every one knows the history. Jomo Kenyatta’s home in Gatundu was a community project, because he had lost years to jailing and detention, and yet he died as the country’s single largest landowner. All Parliament’s during his presidency remained silent, and the few Kenyans who challenged his acquisitive style found themselves in detention or worse. The genesis of what we colloquially call the land grabbing mania of Kenya’s political elite was epitomised by the Kenyatta era. His successor Daniel arap Moi continued this trend and the land corruption of both eras has been extensively documented in the Ndungu Commission of Inquiry Report of 2004, which should be recommended reading for all Kenyans. The Ndungu Report is itself corroborative of the Kombo Select Committee Report of 2000. Read them both. The Mau Forest story is there. So it’s not at all ironical that among the potential evictees from the Mau complex is a certain large scale tea farmer from Kiptagich who once was the President of Kenya and the leader of Uhuru Kenyatta’s political party KANU.
(picture of Kiptagich and Mau Forest map)
Kiptagich Tea Estates Limited owned by Arap Moi is prominent in the Ndungu Report. But Moi did not limit himself to environmental destruction he also specialized in financial corruption on a massive scale which is described in the Kroll Report on the Looting of Kenya which together with the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry Report details presidential misconduct and misrule by Daniel Arap Moi which impoverished Kenya for decades to come. It appears that Moi’s tenure at Kiptagich may be ending soon. Writing in the Standard on Sunday newspaper, Juma Kwayera claims that the Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s communications office issued a despatch as follows: “On Monday we are sending emissaries to Moi to surrender the Kiptagich Tea Plantation or we take it by force.” That’s fighting talk but what remains true is that Daniel Arap Moi has no right to profit another day more from a tea factory that he illegally set up for himself by abusing his presidential prerogatives for his own personal gain. Kenyans should not be confused by the hypocritical and emotional calls by Uhuru Kenyatta, Zakayo Cheruiyot, Franklin Bett, William Ruto, Mutula Kilonzo and Kiema Kilonzo for poor people’s taxes to be used to compensate large scale land grabbers such as Daniel Arap Moi. Kenyans don’t be fooled; reject these Nyayos as you did in 2002. It is really to Daniel Arap Moi’s aid that the revived KANU / Uhuru Kenyatta 2002 (or 2012) Presidential Campaign is rushing. Watch this Video: Ten Ministers attend Mau fundraiser
Elements of the neo-KANU leadership are desperate to avoid having to face the poor people they deceived into believing that the Mau land they were being given had legitimate titles. Moi is simply trying to keep his tea farm.
Kiptagich Tea Estates Limited factory
Our authority for the accusations against Moi is Mr. Paul Ndungu who chaired the Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Land Grabbing (Ndungu Report). In July this year he publicly stated that the Kiptagich Tea Estates farm is on illegally grabbed forest land, and that his Commission recommended in 2004 that the Government repossess the stolen land which Moi remeined in possession of. Below his complete interview with the Nation.
How grabbing of forest land started
MAN WHO CHAIRED COMMISSION ON ILLEGAL ALLOCATION OF LAND TELLS OF THE GENESIS OF THE MAU PROBLEM By SAMWEL KUMBA, Daily Nation Friday, July 31 2009
It all started in the mid 1980s as a well-meaning campaign to settle the landless. The government, under President Daniel Moi, decided that the Ogiek community should not be homeless anymore. They were to be resettled permanently where they could be provided with social amenities such as hospitals and schools. That is how the government ordered an excision of part of Mau Forest Complex, made up of 22 forest blocks, for settlement.
Mr Paul Ndung’u, who chaired the commission on illegal and irregular allocation of public land, told Saturday Nation that it was in the process of carving out land for these settlements, that corruption crept in. “Instead of carving out say, 2,000 hectares, those handling the exercise would excision 10,000 hectares and allocate the extra hectares to themselves and other influential individuals in government,” said Mr Ndung’u.
KIPTAGICH
Mr Ndung’u gives an example of Kiptagich settlement, to which some residents from Baringo were moved when their land was taken for construction of a college. Kiptagich, in the southern part of Mau Forest, started as a very small settlement scheme. And since the area was virgin land and close to the tea growing zones of Kericho, the new arrivals also ventured into growing tea.
According to Mr Ndung’u, President Moi, while touring the area, realised tea was doing very well and conceived of plans to expand its production. He got himself a huge chunk of land and grew tea. “The tea growers used to deliver it to the factories near Kericho which was not only far but through very bad road network. Eventually, Mr Moi decided to build a private factory there for them,” said Mr Ndung’u. The Ndung’u Commission found that the excision of Kiptagich Farm from Trans Mara Forest in 1988 was illegal.
The report’s verdict was that former President Moi’s children, who were illegally allocated land, including former Baringo Central MP Gideon Moi and his wife Zahra, Raymond Kiprotich, Doris Choge and Jonathan Toroitich, should return it.
And an audit report of the Mau forests by the Committee on Land Ownership and Resettlement matters appointed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, which has already been approved by the Cabinet, shows that beneficiaries of the Mau allocations were never the Ogiek people. According to the committee of the prime minister’s task force on the conservation of the Mau forests, correspondence revealed that land in the Mau was allocated by public officers and provincial administrators who had no legal authority to allocate it.
Later in 1997, the government decided to establish in Nakuru another settlement scheme – Olenguruone and extension of Kiptagich for which 1,812 ha were set aside. An interview of a former Commissioner for Lands by the Ndung’u Commission revealed that the intention was to establish an outgrower tea zone for Kiptagich Tea Estates, sitting on 937.7 ha of land.
All these excisions had not been gazetted.
Other settlements established without de-gazetting the forest included South West of Mau to establish Saino, Ndoinet, Tinet among others, and Eastern Mau to establish Sururu and Likia. In the 1990s group ranches were ordered to subdivide their land among members. The directive also applied to land buying companies and cooperatives. A few ranches bordered the Mau forest. In the process of subdivision of ranches, they encroached into forest land, and subdivided it as well. This is when the settlements on the Narok and Trans Mara side of the Mau started. But some was given to, mainly Maasai’s, who sold their portions to mostly the Kipsigis, for as low as Sh10,000 a hectare.
Mr Ndung’u says that because all the settlements were created in the forest before it was de-gazetted to farm land, everything was done illegally. “It does not matter who gave the directive, including the President… the titles should be revoked, everybody should be evicted and the forest to be replanted,” he said.
A picture showing the destruction in the Mau forest
SHADES OF POLITICAL SIN AND THE DEARTH OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
We saw them jostle for space on the “high table.” And from this high table, vitriol flew high left, right and centre as if the speakers were competing to see whose vitriol would tickle the most. Vitriol kept flying high even from unlikely quarters like the Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta. And to think that he could even quote the Holy Bible to wash the vitriol down our throats! Evidently, the poignant atmosphere in the circus of a fundraiser was punctuated by cheap bursts of prolonged laughter from all those gathered. The unmistaken message of such laughter was to make those in attendance realize one`s presence.
Honorable Najib Balala, the Mvita MP and the self styled Minister for political tourism capped it all by stating that those on the high table were the future of this country. In other words, those not on the high table, even though they were present in the fundraiser, they were not part of the future! Among those present in the fundraiser but not on the high table were the likes of Honorable Eugene Wamalwa, the Saboti MP who many across the political divide thought that he epitomized transformational leadership. However, going by Balala`s sentiments, then the youthful Wamalwa is apparently, not part of the future political leadership of this country. I thought that he got the drift, but no, like the rest in the crowd, his laughter and clapping told a different story. So what became of his budding presidential ambitions? Has his new found company dissuaded him from pursuing his ambition?
I know that I have no right telling him who to walk with, for deep down in my heart, I know that like the iconic Nelson Mandela`s rejoinder to Bill Clinton, he will quip: “let me choose my friends as you choose your enemies.” But I will not tire for I will find solace in the aphorism of the erstwhile Kimilili MP, “if one walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then he must be a duck!” Through Wamalwa`s body language we now know his bosom friends. Has he not been spotted from time to time snuggling in the company of the same youthful political tourists, opportunists and slanderers who are busy casting their ethno-political net wide and far? Their political intrigues and the display of expediency coupled with sheer ineptitude among these political tourists, nay “transformational leaders” threatens to vanquish the very future that they are preaching to the youth. Could be that they take advantage of the youth being the age of credulity?
Someone needs to tell Honorable Wamalwa pretty fast that if he does not re-examine his conscience, his well guarded personality and his razor sharp brain risks
decomposing in the company of trivial personalities. It is not surprising that of late, his rhetoric is increasingly portraying him as having completely nothing in common with the youth nor does he currently have a wee bit of understanding of the youthful generation that he purports to be the voice of. He leaves us with so many questions unanswered.
How can he be part of those telling the youth that the Government of the day must reward cheats who invaded the Mau Complex and in the same breath promise them a
brighter future under his watchful custody! Why is he part of a clique that has become a stumbling block in the Mau Complex conservation efforts? How can he be part of those whose Solomonic wisdom is to rise to the helm of this country`s political leadership through tribal alliances? How can he be in communion with a clique
harping on transformational leadership even though their actions and inactions portray them as bullies and opportunists who are pennywise but pound foolish? Just
who will be the gad fly to sting honorable Wamalwa back to reality?
TOME FRANCIS
BUMULA CONSTITUENCY.
Moi faults government on environmental conservation plan
NTVKenya
December 02, 2009
Retired president Daniel Arap Moi says he does not agree with the manner in which the government is handling the environmental conservation agenda. Moi says the governments efforts especially in the Mau will not amount to much. Here are some quotes:
“wanachanganya drought hii na mambo ya Mau” – (They’re mixing up the current drought and Mau conservation)
“Kwani Lake Naivasha is it not dry? are they worried about it, or elsewhere?”
“Drought which has never happened before. Even in my lifetime it has not happened”
“Wakati unafinya unafikiri Mau maji yote inatoka Mau” – (As you squeeze me you’re acting as if all water comes from Mau)
Moi says he never settled people in Mau
BY LABAN WANAMBISI, NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 2 – Former President Daniel arap Moi has exonerated himself from blame over the settlement of people in the Mau forest.
He also declined to say whether he was among those who owned property or huge chunks of land in the forest.
He instead appeared to be passing the blame to other government officials who worked under him, and during the reign of President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
“We should ask ourselves when those people started flocking into that forest” said the former President.
He has also opposed the eviction of people from the Mau Complex, terming it inhumane.
The former President also says the current drought ravaging many parts of the country was not as a result of the destruction of Mau forest.
He however equally hit out at a section of Rift Valley MPs who went to visit the evictees camping by the roadsides in the area and who used the opportunity to hit out at Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
“They were recently in there (in Mau) making noise yet they do not even know when those people started entering the forest,” he added.
Speaking to the press at his Kabarnet Gardens residence in Nairobi, the retired President said those making noise over Mau “were acting in futility.”
He said he supports efforts to conserve the environment but that such should be conducted in a “humane and organised manner”.
He said environmental conservation issues should not be used for political expedience and that it was disheartening that the Mau eviction had taken such an angle.
While admitting that he was also personally concerned at the prolonged drought facing the country, the former President Moi however insisted that he did not think Mau was the cause of all the problems.
“I have actually never seen such prolonged drought in our country all my lifetime. But many other water sources and pans in the country are facing problems and I do not think it is because of only Mau. Lake Nakuru is drying up yet nobody is talking about that,” he added.
MAU(MESSING AROUND with US.)
I have followed the Mau debate with keen interest;though i must admit at first i was worried the enemies of conservation were getting the upper hand in this whole sorry episode.That is why it struck me that the noun MAU can be an acronym for those who have been messing up with Kenyans all this time.
They did not disapoint;all those who played a prominent role in propping the NYAYO regime ran to each others bosoms for reassurance and protection when they realized that their ill-gotten possessions are on the verge of being repossessed by the state.They used threats to intimidate the likes of the P.M. so that he will abandon implementing a reformist government policy.This policy of evicting all human encroachment from the country’s water towers is for the general welfare of all Kenyans for posterity.It was sanctioned by relevant state decision making organs of which these Nyayoists are a part of.Maybe they thought that all Kenyan leaders will behave like they used to:institute a commission of inquiry,receive the report,promise to act on it,then shelf it and move on to politicking and tribal rabble rousing in the name of protecting one’s people.
However this time around they were in for a surprise as the P.M. and others like the Forestry and Wildlife minister implemented the government decision.This is the culture that Kenyans want to see in all their leaders.When a decision has been made let them not fear political interests will be compromised.Kenyans will always be behind a leader who sacrifices their own immediate interests in favor of the greater good.
Also this obsession with calling oneself youthful does not guarantee one a political office in Kenya anymore.There are so many young Kenyan political leaders who have totally dissapointed and we had so much hope in them.Realistically,if they are weighed against the likes of Michuki and Raila;youthful leaders like Ruto and Balala have only corruption scandals in their ministries to speak of.Ruto with his maize scandal and Balala with his tourism scandal where he was mentioned adversely.Also,they are mentioned adversely together with Uhuru in the post-election crisis reports.
So youth is not a measure of positive contribution to any effort;it is the freshness of one’s ideas,actions and visions.Michuki is not a youth but his ability spells youthfulness and youthful vigour that is lacking in many of the so-called young leaders.
Thus all Nyayoists led by the ultimate Nyayo former President Moi should let Kenya and Kenyans be.Teaching us about humane treatment of anyone is shocking as he and others supervised a repressive regime where human rights was a taboo term in official circles.Let reforms and reform minded Kenyans take charge of all our affairs.It will enable us do away with this culture of striking up tribal alliances whenever one has a certain tribal and selfish agenda to market.Let no Nyayoist Mess Around with Us.
NICHOLAS KARANI-KENYA.
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