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Index
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MP and his kin grabbed Ogiek land
- 06.10.2004
Report calls for govt seizure of grabbed land
- 05.10.2004
Ogiek families
'robbed' of their land - 05.10.2004
Call to keep off indigenous forests
Story by NATION Reporter
Publication Date: 10/05/2004
Farmers have been told to keep off indigenous forests. Environment assistant minister Wangari Maathai yesterday said the Government would protect "at all costs" all the gazetted forested areas.
"We cannot sacrifice indigenous forests at the expense of etic plantations. Plantations represent a monoculture of trees, but a forest is an ecology system," she said when opening a conference on environment law at the Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi.
She was representing the minister, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, at the four-day conference being attended by international environmental law experts.
Revisiting the controversial shamba system issue, Prof Maathai said the Government had not lifted the ban on farming in the forests. "It had been agreed that the process be done in zones which exclude the five major forests," she said as she made a clarification following reports that Mr Musyoka had directed that forest farming be introduced in Nduduri, Subukia constituency.
The minister's remarks were interpreted to mean a turn-around by the Government on the system, also known as non-residential cultivation because those who farm in the forests do not live there.
Prof Maathai urged Kenyans to protect the indigenous forests and stop expanding exotic plantations at their expense.
Last year's ban of the shamba system and the reclamation of the Aberdare forest had started to bear fruit, she said. "It is very encouraging; there is no major soil erosion, the bushes and forest are now healing," she told the
Nation.
She said the system had been abused as farmers were allowed through corruption to turn large sections of indigenous forests into farmlands, "destroying local biodiversity and greatly reducing the capacity of the forests to be effective water reservoirs.
"Poachers, illegal loggers, charcoal burners and even drug barons invaded the forests."
She said the debate on the system was driven by ignorance, and argued that many people did not know the difference between indigenous forests and exotic plantations.
"Leaders should know this to meet the needs of all Kenyans, including the landless and the poor. The
shamba system does not have to be practised in the indigenous forests.
"There is no reason why Kenya cannot shift focus from indigenous forests to private farms and encourage farmers and investors to turn trees into a cash crop."
In his speech, Mr Musyoka said Kenyans appreciated the need to preserve ecological diversity.
"You are probably aware that Kenya is one of the most alert and active societies when it comes to agitation for the protection of the environment," he said in the speech read by Prof Maathai. "Our civil society has been known to be vocal in the name of environmental protections."
UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, in a message presented at the conference, said deforestation and desertification were threatening ecosystems, biodiversity and food security.
Nearly 2 billion hectares are affected by human-induced degradation of soils, endangering many people's
livelihoods.
Ogiek families 'robbed' of their land
Story by DAVID OKWEMBAH
DAILY NATION
Publication Date: 05.10.2004
Politically connected individuals grabbed more than 4,500 acres of land set aside for the Ogiek community on the boundary of Nakuru and Baringo districts, sources say.
Those who have read the Paul Ndungu report on land yesterday said the Ogiek settlement land was to be subdivided for 600 families in 1997 but that this did not happen.
According to the sources, the report says the land, identified as the Nakuru/Olenguruone/Kiptagich (extension), was sub-divided into 904 plots and given out to top State House employees, Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and MPs.
One of the sources said the largest plot, measuring 80 hectares (197.6 acres), was allocated to the Kiptagich tea factory while the smallest plot 1.05 hectares (2.6 acres) was given to an individual.
The Kaplong mission hospital, run by the Nakuru Catholic Diocese, received two plots measuring 41.6 acres.
An East African Legislative Assembly MP and three serving provincial commissioners also got plots in the scheme, each measuring 4.21 hectares. Five Rift Valley MPs benefited from the irregular allocations. One of them was allocated three plots measuring 80 acres, which he jointly owned with his wife.
A top Central Bank of Kenya official was allocated 7.07 hectares while 10 former permanent secretaries were each allocated one or two plots covering 4.21 hectares. Top military officers and religious leaders were not left out either, those who read the report said.
According to the sources, the commission was stunned to learn that the forest land had been "surveyed and registered and titles issued."
The report says those who were allocated the land should know that the allocations were illegal.
"Either the short-listed beneficiaries grabbed the land meant for the Ogiek community or what was registered as the Nakuru/Olenguruone/Kiptagich (extension) was an illegal encroachment on forest land," the sources said.
The irregular excisions also affected other forests including South Western Mau, Eastern Mau, Londiani, Mt Kenya, Marmanet, Kapsaret, Nabkoi, Nakuru, Tinderet and South Nandi.
The Likia settlement scheme, where land clashes erupted recently, is part of the Eastern Mau Forest which the Ndungu report also considered.
However, transactions on the forest the land have not been finalised because of court cases challenging their legality.
Those who have read the report said the Ndungu commission found out
that:
- Most illegal or irregular allocations were made to individuals,
schools, the Agricultural Society of Kenya and the Nyayo Tea Zones
- Most excisions of forest land were processed without considerations for social, economic or ecological implications
- Squatter settlement schemes were used as a conduit to encroach on forest land by well-connected individuals
- Forest lands were grabbed through stage-managed irregular allocations. The transactions were used to raise money for elections in 1988, 1992, 1997 and 2002.
The report also reveals how large tracts of forest land were illegally excised and distributed to undeserving private developers.
Such excisions continued even after the presidential ban on allocation of public land. The ban was imposed in 1999 after the Environmental Management and Coordination Act was passed.
The Act stipulated that before any major changes in land use could be effected, an environmental impact assessment had to be carried out.
The commission declared the following excisions illegal:
- All excisions carried out after the 1999 presidential ban on allocation of public land
- All excisions without boundary plans and legal (gazette) notices
- All excisions done after the Environmental Management and Coordination Act was passed and
- Excisions through which land meant for the expansion of Government institutions was allocated to
individuals.
Report calls for govt seizure of grabbed land
Published: 10/05/2004
By: MUTEGI NATION
Huge tracts of land illegally allocated to private developers should be repossessed by the Government, according to a draft report into the grabbing of public land.
If implemented by the Kibaki administration, it could see almost 750,000 acres hived off from forests returned to the State plus land snatched from national parks and game reserves, wetlands, sites bordering rivers and lakes, and land belonging to national museums.
The Government should repossess all forest land illegally or irregularly allocated to private developers, where the beneficiaries have not occupied or developed the areas, the draft recommends.
In one infamous case, the report states that the Kiptagich settlement scheme of 1,812 hectares was meant to settle the Ogiek community, but instead was grabbed by well connected individuals and politicians.
Other cases mentioned in the draft report are the illegal allocation of parts of the Ngong and Karura forests near Nairobi, where more than 1,100 hectares were handed to private developers.
Also all Nyayo Tea Zones should be abolished and the land reverted to the forest department, states the report, by a commission chaired by Nairobi lawyer Paul Ndung'u.
The report, commissioned in July last year, and handed to President Kibaki on July 2, this year, has yet to be officially released.
However, a draft of the finished version stated clearly that forest land in prime areas and that in the tea zones was allocated to people as a way of raising campaign funds during the 1988, 1992, 1997 and 2002 General Elections.
The Government should revoke land titles and repossess all forest subject to lease agreements or whose leases were fraudulently acquired.
The draft of the final report also recommends that all excess land allocated to public bodies like schools and colleges should be revoked.
Unoccupied settlement schemes proposed in forests should be reviewed, the report recommends.
And it also states that all trust land forests should be surveyed and gazetted to bring all forests under the protection of the Forest Act.
On wetlands and land alongside rivers and lakes known as riparian land the draft recommends that the Government should revoke individual or private titles granted in such areas, including that now owned by Coast Acquaculture and Lake Naivasha allocations.
All Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) land that has been irregularly or illegally allocated to private developers should also be revoked and returned to the state, the report says.
The Commission of Inquiry into Illegal and Irregular Allocation of Public Land, chaired by Mr Ndung'u, states that the illegal and irregular allocations of forests was done without technical considerations for social, economic and ecological implications.
In many cases, no boundary plans were made, while Gazette and other legal notices were not published, as required by the law.
Some of the forest excisions the commission held to be illegal or irregular were those effected after the Presidential ban on allocation of public land, in 1999.
Others were those without boundary plans; without Gazette notices; agreed after the passing of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act of 1999; all those which have been challenged in court; all excisions meant for the expansion of Government institutions then allocated to private developers; and all mutual exchanges of forestland still waiting to be regularised.
In all, 733,088 acres of Kenya's forest land that has been irregularly or illegally excised should be handed back to the Forest Department.
The land to be taken back is spread nationwide with large chunks in three provinces Rift Valley, Central and Western.
In Rift Valley, the forest land is in Tinet, Ndoinet, Saino and Kaptagich where the Ogieks should have gone. Others include Sururu, Likia, Teret, Sigotik, Nesseuit, Ngongogeri, Marioshoni, Elburgon/Kapsite, Baraget, Kapita-Molo, Kibunja settlements schemes in Nakuru District. In Koibatek District is Muchongoi Settlement Fund Trustees schemes.
The land in Central Province includes Mikaro and Geta (4,340 hectares) in Aberdare forest of Nyandarua District; and, Gathuru, Hombe, Magutu and Ndathi forests in Nyeri District, including Uaso Narok, in Marmanet, in Laikipa District. In Western province there is Chepyuk settlement schemes in Mt Elgon District; and Turbo and Mautuma in Lugari District.
A number of proposed forest excisions have been challenged in court. They include those in South Western Mau forest; Eastern Mau forest; Londian forest; Mt Kenya East forest; Marmanet forest; Kapsaret forest; Nabkoi forest; Nakuru, Tinderet, and South Nandi forests.
Government bodies such as KWS, Prisons, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, the Meteorological Department and the Kenya Science Teachers College irregularly acquired excess land from forests, which was later fraudulently allocated to private developers, the report says.
MP and his kin grabbed Ogiek land
Published: 10/06/2004
By: NATION Reporter
DAILY NATION
A Rift Valley member of Parliament, his wife and four siblings were each allocated land in Nakuru at the expense of the Ogiek community.
The MP and his wife were given four parcels of land in the 1,812-hectare (4,476 acres) Olenguruone/Kiptagich settlement scheme, meant for 600 landless families.
Those who are privy to the Paul Ndung'u land report say that whereas the MP used a company to get the land, his siblings used their names.
The MP was allocated 19.48 hectares (49 acres), the second largest tract after Kiptagich Tea Limited's 80 hectares (198 acres). In addition, he got three plots of 4.21 hectares (10.3 acres).
His elder brother got two parcels measuring more than 20 acres and his sister 10.3 acres.
Two other brothers were each given 10.3 acres each.
The commission is said to have concluded that the allottees had grabbed their plots from the Ogiek community.
The commission notes that the land was still part of Government forest.
Seven top State House employees during retired President Moi's tenure got a total of 63 acres. Among the beneficiaries was a former Presidential Press Service director and his two deputies.
Three companies linked to a then State House operative were allocated more than 139 hectares (345 acres) while a High Court judge, the late William Tuiyot, got 4.21 hectares (10.3 acres).
Only four plots were set aside for public amenities 21 acres for a church, 16 acres for a trading centre and dispensary, and 17 acres for a school.
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