Violence in the region has over time made the Mau Forest conservation efforts a hard nut to crack, with the government at a crossroads over the best way to conduct evictions.
The government's latest bid to reclaim sections of the forest in Logoman, Sururu, Likia, Kiptunga, Mariashoni, Nessuit, Baraget and Olposmor has been marred by violence, which has derailed the evictions.
Leaders from the region among them Rift Valley Council of Elders chairman Gilbert Kabage and Ogiek Council of Elders chairman Joseph Towett said that, underneath the ethnic strife, was the enduring feeling of historical injustices, that mainly borders on land allocation.
A potent mix of politics, land grievances and a community caught between unresolved historical injustices, including a bid to regain their ancestral land and a push to protect their culture, are behind the frequent flare-ups of violence in the Eastern Mau, the Nation can reveal.
Violence in the region has over time made the Mau Forest conservation efforts a hard nut to crack, with the government at a crossroads over the best way to conduct evictions with at least 28,500 hectares of the forest land, approximately half of the 57,000-hectare forest block,encroached.
