There are two Mau. There is Mau that is under national gov (KFS). And there is Mau that has always been under Narok County Council & now Narok County Gov
KFS MAU - was excised severally and the likes of Mwaita got land there. My land in Mau was part of this Mau. To exercise National Forest there are procedures that includes gazetting it. The last excision was 2001 under Mwaita. It never happen again because of hue & cry.
Now Narok's Mau otherwise called Maasai Mau is like Maasai Mara a trustland that was managed by Narok County. To exercise a trustland forest under country gov you just require councillors to sit down and pass a resolution. Here is where Mau is getting finished without any noise. Maasai councilors sit and dice the forest. They then wait for sometime & flip it to kipsigis - group ranches of many acres - are sold for a few millions - and when Kipsigis descent on the forest and clear the land - then it hit them what disaster they've unleashed.
Narok councillors have been dishing out Mau forest since 1970s. Ntimama (long serving Narok Council Chairman) gave Moi 5,000 hectares in 1974 when Moi was mere VP. They gave PC Cheluget a whopping 13,000 hectares. Moi cleared the trees and planted tea. Cheluget was too lazy and nearly lost his land to squattors - I have heard he got it back recently and sold it to William Ruto - who has acquired many lands in Narok including Transmara with help of Tunai.
Of course the Maasai councillors and big men sliced and diced the forest amongst themselves. Ntutus, name them, either own it or had group ranches owning the forest. These excissed land complete with brand new titles were then sold to Kipsigis cheaply - anything from 10K an acre to now around 70k an acre. I have bought my Mau(Nakuru) land from anything 30k to 50k an acre - this is by basically tracing Moi era civil servants who got land but have no idea where the land is
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Unless Maasai Mau is reverted is audited and reverted back to KFS - there is nothing to save there. It very likely Maasais have sold everything. The owners are just waiting for opportune time to clear the forest.
Gov Chepkwony has gone to court to try and save poor Kipsigis who bought maasai group ranches - the people who were kicked out yesterday have title-deed - given from them in Narok.
He claimed that the government is illegally evicting private owners of individual property comprising Reiyo, Enakishomi, Sisiyan, Enoosokon and Nkaroni group ranches.
https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Mau-evictions--Governor-goes-to-court/1056-4680746-af2fi9z/index.htmlAfter Maasai are done selling mau forest - and kipsigis move en-masse - they start panicking and start trying to claim the remaining uncleared forest is forest
. It not a forest. It private land just waiting to be cleared. Classic maasai dishonesty where they lease your land and come around to graze their cattle on them.
Sammy mwaita former Mp of baringo isn't one of the people who allocated themselves forest land then sold it after ole ntutu commission established the forest line? Just asking don't know the mau history.
