Mau forests evictees at one of the Internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in 2022 after being displaced during successive government-led eviction exercises.

📋 Breaking It Down

A bungled compensation programme for families evicted from the Mau Forest has presented President William Ruto with a new humanitarian and political headache in the South Rift region.

More than 15,000 families left out of the compensation process are demanding to be paid while accusing administrators and government officials of sneaking the names of their cronies and relatives onto the list, even though they are not victims of the eviction.

An uproar erupted immediately after President Ruto announced at Tendwet Secondary School grounds in Narok South Constituency on August 26 that the government was compensating 13,000 families evicted from the Mau Forest in 2019.

📌 What You Need to Know

Whereas the government registered 28,000 families as victims of the eviction, there was no explanation as to why 15,000 were left out of the compensation programme, with the President appearing keen, and in a hurry, to close the eviction question.

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President Ruto also announced that the government had handed over the title deed for the land recovered following the eviction to the Narok County Government.

President William Ruto addresses members of the public after launching the construction of the 59km Enengetia-Olposimoru road in Narok County on August 25, 2026.

“We are today releasing Sh2.6 billion to a total of 13,000 families evicted from the Mau Forest. Each of the families will from now receive Sh200, 000 each as compensation,” Dr Ruto said as he announced the release of the funds, which were wired to the respective mobile phones of the benefiting victims of the eviction.

Dr Ruto announced that another 2,000 families who had been camping in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps had earlier been paid Sh300, 000 each, leading to the closure of the makeshift structures they had lived in for more than six years.

📰 Source: Nation Africa