Emerging details indicate that more police officers have been deployed to Mau Forest ahead of the planned eviction of illegal settlers.
This is after the police caught wind of information that locals are reportedly planning to resist eviction, and have since embarked on arming themselves in readiness to engage the officers.
According to acting Narok County Commissioner Mutuku Mwenga, the plan includes taking arms to fight off the police.
He said the authorities have also received intelligence that the youth are also arming themselves with machetes, which he, however, said will not prevent the planned exercise.
"We have received intelligence information that some people were planning to resist the evictions. None should be cheated by anyone that they can resist eviction. I'm happy that already people are moving out at their own free will," he said on Monday.
Another intelligence source told the Standard that some former settlers have returned to the forest in readiness for the resistance, after moving their belongings out.
And with the 60-day window that had been given by Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya being halfway, the police have established that some 2,200 families have left voluntarily, ahead of the planned forceful evictions.
The evictions have been criticised by leaders from the Kalenjin community, who have lamented that the targeted settlers are legal land owners and should not be victimized.
On the other hand, politicians from the Maasai community have backed the move, claiming that most of the settlers left their homes in the neighbouring counties to invade the forest.