Tobiko: No compensation for Mau evictees

Environment CS Keriako Tobiko has a word with UNDP senior technical advisor Elsie Attafuah during a Forest Carbon partnership Facility project meeting at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha. Tobiko said the government will not compensate forest evictees as demanded by some politicians. [Photo: Standard]

Hundreds of families who were recently evicted from Mau Forest will not be compensated, the Environment and Forestry Cabinet secretary has maintained.

Instead, Tobiko Keriako noted that the families should be held accountable for illegally obtaining gazetted Government land and charged with criminal offences.

The CS accused some State officers of colluding with communities to issue title deeds, warning that the documents were illegal and the Government would not recognise them.

Gazetted land

“We have heard cries of compensation from families that had encroached on gazetted land and this shall not happen. The Government shall instead confiscate that land,” he said.

The CS was speaking in Naivasha after opening a two-day Forest Carbon Partnership Facility REDD+ workshop sponsored by the UNDP.

Mr Tobiko said the Government was committed to attaining 10 per cent forest cover by 2022.