Raila's plan to save the Mau Forest in 2009, was supposed to be undertaken in a different manner, having learned from the successes and failures of his predecessors.
Being the prime minister then, he advocated for billions of shillings to be allocated by the government for compensation, to bring the thorny Mau issue to an end once and for all.
The Daily Nation reported on Thursday, September 26, that many of the people in the coalition government were vehemently opposed to the evictions, even with compensation, claiming that Raila was going to milk political mileage from it.
The notion was justified by retired President Mwai Kibaki's decision to backtrack from the eviction order he had issued in 2005, in an attempt to gain the support of Rift Valley politicians in the acrimonious 2005 referendum, a factor that backfired in his face.
Raila, who was against the referendum then, won in the Rift Valley with 1.2 million votes while Kibaki only managed to gather 300,000.
In 2009, the then Minister for Agriculture, William Ruto, had experienced an ugly fallout with Odinga, and he marshalled leaders from the Rift Valley to resist the eviction of residents from their 'homeland'.
The Standard reported in November 2009, that Ruto gathered 23 Rift Valley MPs, some of them allied to ODM, and in one voice, they dismissed Raila's initiative.
In the Ruto-convened rally, former MP for Marakwet East Lina Kilimo, described Raila as a wolf in sheep’s skin and launched accusations that he was planning to exterminate the Kalenjin community.
"He tried to clear the Kalenjin from the leadership of this country in the 1982 abortive coup. He is at it again, this time trying to oversee this starting from Mau. We should be warned, just like he warned us that a tsunami is coming," she sensationally alleged.
Speaking in Kalenjin at that rally, Ruto reminded the Rift Valley voters that they made a hasty decision in 2007 (voting for Raila), without listening to the voices of those who tried to warn them.
"All this I hear you complaining about is our very own fault. But next time, we will sit and talk widely. For now, no one should deceive you that we have already decided on the direction we will take," he claimed.
Raila was forced to abandon the plans not long after, but it had done more than enough damage to his political career.
Though he had captured almost 80 per cent of the Rift Valley votes in the 2005 referendum, he barely made 10 per cent in the 2013 General Elections.
The Mau Forest excision continued unabated, with politics still hovering over the thorny issue.
