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Mau forest: State cannot have
the cake and eat it
EA STANDARD
26/07/2008
Mau Forest, which is the source of 12 major rivers, is undoubtedly
our priceless and most important water tower. The question of
whether human habitation and degradation of any nature, including
felling trees for sawmilling business, should be allowed should
not even arise. Destruction through logging, excisions and
encroachment of this fragile ecosystem is a matter of life and
death.
Probably as a ghastly harbinger of things to come, the Government
has already cancelled the commissioning of Sondu Miriu
Hydro-Electric Station because of low water levels. The dam on the
Lake Victoria Basin is fed through water sources in the Mau
Forest, hundreds of kilometres away.
The same fate, of falling water levels, has been reported in Lake
Nakuru and Mara Serengeti, which again are not only priceless
wildlife sanctuary onto which our economy is anchored, but also
rely on the Mau Forest’s ecosystem. Its instability and
destruction is foolish, negligent and suicidal for the nation.
Sad as it is, the grim consequences of our inaction, bickering and
grandstanding, are already being felt. We are already living the
gloom of its wanton destruction, even as politicians play
ping-pong with each other, through hate speeches and threats laced
with tribal overtones. Already there is a multi-sectoral
commission working on a quick and peaceful resolution to the issue
that has been aggravated by the decision by the previous regime to
settle ‘landless’ people in the water tower.
Of course no one is talking about the rich and mighty, who
disguised themselves as landless under the cover of hidden
companies, and walked away with hundreds of acres that are now tea
bushes. But it galls the heart to imagine that in the 400,000-acre
forest, we can satiate the greed of all of us. It is unimaginable
the human catastrophe we are courting. Already the United Nations
Environmental Programme has worked out our daily loss from wanton
destruction of the Mau Forest — Sh2.1 million!
Outrageous pronouncements
Even as the inter-ministerial consultative committee works on the
relocation of the 3,000 families illegally settled in the region,
it is contemptuous for the nation that a section of the political
leadership has reduced this spectacle into a Maasai-Kipsigis
affair.
It is worse that one of the minister has given the Government — as
if he is not part of it — 90 days to evict those settled in the
area or his community would do it.
It smacks of heartlessness and impunity that a minister can be
allowed to run away with murder, having casually dropped the line
that, “just the other day we finished 600 across there.’’
He then adds that may be it would be wiser for the leaders on
either side to amass troops and fight it out in the open. Nothing
could be more perilous to the rule of law and constitutionalism to
which we claim to be our roadmap to daily existence than such
pronouncement by leaders. Whereas there is no doubt we are
precipitating a humanitarian crisis, we must never act outside the
orbit of the law. So too must we restrain the politicians on the
other side who, in the name of those facing eviction, have also
began layering their demands with acrid tribal talk.
Finally we must demand that the Government settles this problem
once and for all, in a manner devoid of politics. It was after all
this regime that crudely executed the evictions and finally, at
the onset of the campaigns last year, invited those thrown out
back. This Government must be reminded: You can’t have your cake
and eat it!
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