NEWS 2009
December 24, 2009
More oppose Mau payout
By NATION Team
Kenyans continued to oppose plans to compensate big landowners in the Mau, even as others called on the government to honour the sanctity of title deeds.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Thursday said that senior people who own huge parcels of land in the forest should be kicked out without any compensation.
KNHCR vice-chairman Hassan Omar Hassan, who addressed a joint press conference with officials of Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) in Mombasa, lashed out at the government for dragging its feet on the matter.
“The big shots should not be compensated since they acquired the land illegally,” Mr Hassan added.
However, he called for the compensation and allocation of alternative land to the Ogiek, who are forest-dwellers.
Meanwhile, Bishop James Kenneth Ochiel of the Anglican Church of Kenya wants the big shot land owners to surrender them voluntarily.
“I urge those who may have acquired the forest land illegally to humble themselves and surrender them,” he said at Christ the Healer Cathedral in Homa Bay during an ordination ceremony.
Elsewhere, the government was on Thursday asked to honour title deeds issued to land owners in the Mau and to observe the law in the eviction exercise.
Government will go
Former Baringo Central MP Gideon Moi called on landowners with title deeds in the controversial water tower not to surrender them, arguing that “this government will go and another one will be voted in,” he said.
Mr Moi said that compensation was not the solution and cautioned the government against treating land title deeds as mere papers.
He issued the challenge during a peace prayer meeting at Kapkures Primary School in Eldoret North constituency.
Mr Moi is among the land owners who were to share the Sh2 billion compensation to move out of Mau complex. He was to receive Sh33,420,000.
Stories by Galgalo Bocha, Maurice Kaluoch and Barnabas Bii
SOURCE: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/830794/-/wt3hfmz/-/