![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/171dff02-5300-4783-92d5-074d2749f61d.webp\")
President William Ruto in Narok county on August 26, 2026.\/PCS<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPresident William Ruto in Narok county on August 26, 2026.\/PCS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
President William Ruto has declared the controversial Mau Forest evictions chapter closed after 13,000 affected families received Sh200,000 each as compensation.<\/p>\n
The payout, amounting to Sh2.6 billion, is part of the government\u2019s efforts to resolve the plight of families displaced during the campaign to reclaim and protect the Mau Forest complex.<\/p>\n
Ruto said the payments should bring an end to years of uncertainty among families who were evicted from the forest and struggled to rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n
“Hii ndiyo awamu ya mwisho ya kufunga kabisa chapter ya mambo ya Mau. Wale watu elfu mia tatu waliotolewa msitu wapata pesa yao,” he announced.<\/p>\n
He was speaking in Sogoo during the second day of his development tour of Narok County.<\/p>\n
“Tumesema kila mtu atapata shilingi elfu mia mbili yake aende ajipange,” Ruto said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Ruto launched several development projects in Emurua Dikirr Constituency.<\/p>\n
The compensation follows sustained pressure from community leaders and residents who had called on the government to address the plight of families left out of previous resettlement initiatives.<\/p>\n
The latest beneficiaries were among thousands of evictees who did not benefit from an earlier programme targeting families living in camps.<\/p>\n
The government had previously given Sh350,000 to families in camps to help them relocate and establish new homes away from the forest.<\/p>\n
In March, Ruto announced that another group had been identified for assistance after leaders presented their case to him.<\/p>\n
The President said the additional beneficiaries had been left out of the initial programme because they were not residing in the camps when the earlier compensation exercise was undertaken.<\/p>\n
The latest intervention is expected to ease the financial burden on the affected households and allow them to invest in new homes and livelihoods.<\/p>\n
It also marks a significant development in a dispute that has remained politically and socially sensitive for years.<\/p>\n
The Mau Forest complex is a critical water tower whose forests support major rivers and provide water for agriculture, domestic use and industrial activities across the country.<\/p>\n
The previous administration undertook operations to remove people who settled or acquired land in the protected forest, citing the need to restore the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
But the evictions have also attracted criticism over the impact on families, some of whom have claimed historical occupation or ownership of the land.<\/p>\n
Human rights organisations have previously raised concerns about the manner in which some evictions were carried out.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch reported that thousands of people were evicted from parts of the Mau during operations in 2018 and 2019, with some families ending up in makeshift camps.<\/p>\n
The government has maintained that conservation of the Mau is in the national interest and that the forest must be protected from further destruction.<\/p>\n
Ruto\u2019s latest announcement therefore shifts the focus from compensation to conservation, with the government expected to intensify efforts to restore and protect the water tower.<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s move is also likely to ease pressure from communities and leaders who have for years demanded compensation for families affected by the evictions.<\/p>\n
For the beneficiaries, the Sh200,000 payment offers an opportunity to restart their lives after years of displacement.<\/p>\n
For the government, closing the compensation programme allows it to draw a line under one of Kenya\u2019s most contentious conservation disputes while focusing on the long-term protection of the Mau ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President William Ruto in Narok county on August 26, 2026.\/PCS President William Ruto has declared the controversial Mau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[31],"tags":[80,351,352,98,100,36736,353,101,350,99],"class_list":["post-396673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kenya","tag-kenya","tag-kenya-news","tag-star","tag-star-news","tag-star-news-kenya","tag-star-newspaper","tag-star-newspaper-kenya","tag-the-star","tag-the-star-kenya","tag-the-star-newspaper"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117163356943749848","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}