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Uprooted Ogiek ask for alternative land
DAILY NATION
Story by NATION Correspondent
Publication Date: 4/9/2007
More than 4000 members of the Ogiek community displaced from public forests in the North Rift have asked the Government to allocate them alternative land.
The members who are camping on the border of Uasin Gishu and Nandi North districts, yesterday petitioned the Government to allow them to return to the forest two years after eviction.
“We have been subjected to socio-economic and cultural hardships and the Government should either settle us elsewhere or allow us to go back to our original homes in the forest,” said North Rift Ogiek community chairman Daniel Bomoo.
He said the members were faced with starvation and frequent outbreak of diseases due to lack of food and access to health services.
“We have been reduced to beggars, yet we used to lead a comfortable life in the forest where we depended on honey, wild fruits and herbs for food and treatment,” said Mr Bomoo.
The Government uprooted 2117 members of the community from forests in Uasin Gishu and another 2138 in Nandi North.
They have since settled in areas adjacent to Kipkurere, Cengalo and Serengony forests.
Invaded forests
The eviction followed an outcry over wanton destruction of forests due to logging and agriculture.
But the Ogiek blamed squatters who had invaded forests for the destruction.
“We have been involved in forest conservation and protection of wildlife and it is unfair for the Government to evict us without re-settling us elsewhere,” said Mr
Bomoo.
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