Are children in Mau Forest of a lesser God?

What you need to know:

  • For some reason, the Mau Forest evictions saga tends to throw up some of the most brazen attempts at political deception.

  • But the problem with the politicisation of the evictions is not just that politicians like the Elgeyo Marakwet man are lying through the teeth.

  • I, for one, cannot wrap my mind around why the evictions are being enforced in July, the coldest month.

Kenyan politicians generally think that their voters are fools.

The more callous ones have no qualms even using their supporters as human shields or taking those of their perceived rivals hostage just to score political points.

And for some reason, the Mau Forest evictions saga tends to throw up some of the most brazen attempts at political deception.

Last week Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen told a public meeting in the area that the forceful removal of settlers from one of Kenya’s most vital water catchments had to do with the March 9 Handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga.

POLITICAL PATRONAGE

The deal has been widely credited with significantly reducing the political temperatures following the bitter post-election disputes that seemed to push the country close to the brink.

It has also afforded Mr Kenyatta the kind of political stability he needs to try to achieve his second-term legacy goals under the Big Four Agenda.

But it is not particularly popular with some politicians allied to the Deputy President, William Ruto, who saw prolonged political polarisation as offering a platform to mobilise and re-energise the ruling party base in preparation for his own stab at the top seat in 2022.

The resumption of the Mau evictions and the prosecution of a number of State corporation chiefs, who owe their jobs to political patronage, have given the Ruto allies some scarce ammunition to fire in the air.

DUMBEST MOMENT

However, linking Mau and the Handshake is outright disingenuous.

The evictions date back about 15 years when a land commission appointed by the Narc administration found that the departing Moi-era elite had helped themselves to huge chunks of the forestland.

Their being extended down to the ordinary squatters made it a major election issue in 2013, with local politicians seizing the grievances to win votes.

That was also when Mau witnessed perhaps its dumbest moment –a parliamentary candidate taking to the podium to rubbish the hydrological cycle and rally a crowd to declare that ‘rain comes from heaven, not forest’.

But the problem with the politicisation of the evictions is not just that politicians like the Elgeyo Marakwet man are lying through the teeth.

COLDEST MONTH

The real issues, including the human rights of the people affected, that should concern Kenyans about the displacement of settler villages from the forest tend to get lost in the din of the political noise.

I, for one, cannot wrap my mind around why the evictions are being enforced in July, the coldest month when the victims, especially children, are vulnerable to diseases such as pneumonia.

I don’t get it either when the displacements happen during the school term.

Some horror aspects of the police operations we watch on TV appear very traumatising for children – officers setting grass-thatched houses on fire, for example.

Are they children of a lesser God?

[email protected]; @otienootieno