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The Complications of the Mau
Complex
Maina
Aug 22 2008
For years now, the controversy of whether or not to evict
squatters in the Mau Forest Complex in southwestern Kenya has been
played by politicians to their own gain. The problem at the Mau
has survived four general (parliamentary and presidential)
elections so far, and it doesn’t seem to be going away.
Allow me to introduce you to the largest, near-continuous montane
forest block in East Africa before I tell you what the problem is
(or is thought to be). The Mau is huge and critically important to
the three East African states of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The
forests cloak the western slopes, and part of the crest, of the
Mau Escarpment, a block of raised land that forms the western wall
of the Gregory Rift Valley, rising steeply from the floor and
sloping away more gradually to the west. There are five main
Forest Reserves: Eastern, Western and South-western Mau (c.66,000,
22,700 and 84,000 ha respectively), Trans-Mara (34,400 ha) and Ol
Pusimoru (17,200 ha).
A sixth large block, the Maasai Mau (c.46,000 ha) is as yet
ungazetted. In early 2001, a total of 59,134 ha (35,301 in Eastern
Mau, 22,797 ha in South-western Mau, 713 ha in Western May and
1,030 ha in Western Mau) was designated for degazettement meaning
it would be removed from protection status and left to the dogs.
Now here is the problem. Since the ill advised forest excisions of
the late 1990s (to settle landless people), thousands of people
have invaded the forest and laid waste to large swathes of
especially the eastern Mau. The government led resettlement is
said to have brought some 28,000 households into the eastern Mau.
This settlement of agricultural communities also opened up the
forest to a large racket of illegal logging that has contributed
to the loss of about 28% of forest cover in the eastern sector (cumulative
since 1967).
The 28,000 may not be removed since they are there “legally” and
so the target for eviction is those considered “illegal squarters”.
Attempts to remove these aliens have had casualties in government
and politics. President Kibaki’s attempt to remove them during his
first term - about three years ago - cost him the constitutional
referendum that was seeking to usher in a new constitution for
Kenyans. Then in December 2007 when Kenyans voted - in what was to
turn into the bloodiest election ever - Kibaki’s opponents used
the Mau again to make him unpopular. Lots of lesser politicians
have fallen and others gained political favour because of the Mau.
The Mau problems are multifaceted. There is the obvious
environmental degradation concern, there is also a community face
whereby the Kipsigis (who are majority squarters) claim that they
bought their land in the Mau and the Maasai who an ancestral claim
to the Mau. The community card is the politicians pet and has been
used to divide these two communities in an annoyingly predictable
patterns. There is also the Ogiek, who are thought to be the
indegenous people of the forest and are traditionally
hunter-gatherers. The Ogiek are a minority and were evicted from
the forest in the 1980s
Due to the immense importance of the Mau as a one the five most
important “water towers” in Kenya, there are economical
ramifications to consider. The Mau issue have never - in the
public eye - been seen as an environmental issue, but recently, as
it increasingly becomes clear that environmental degradation has
economic repercussions, the environmental aspect has begun to get
noticed.
Picture this: Numerous streams originate from the forests west of
the scarp crest, forming part of the Sondu and Mara river systems,
which flow into Lake Victoria, and the Southern Ewaso Ngiro system,
which flows into Lake Natron. The Eastern Mau is the main
watershed for Lake Nakuru, through the Njoro, Makalia and Enderit
rivers. Take the out the Mara River alone and you don’t have the
Masai Mara (as we know it) and parts of the Serengeti, northern
Tanzania. That is bad for the multi-billion tourism industry in
Kenya and Tanzania.
The Mau complex has complex problems and the political tug-of-wars
are not helping. If we dont stop the destruction of the Mau,
millions of people will suffer. Only several thousand people have
invaded the Mau, but millions downstream will suffer the
consequences.
Recently, the Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, announced the
formation of a Task Force to chart a way forward in the removal of
the squatters. It consists of some high profile conservationists
together with the usual political puppets. We hope the
environmentalists will prevail and a people-friendly and
environmentally sound formula is found to remove the squatters.
One thing is clear, and the Mr Odinga said it: there are no two
ways of saving the Mau. The only way to save the Mau is to remove
those folk from the forest and protect it against illegal logging.
I will keep an eye open to see what the Task Force comes up with.
To learn more about the Mau there are several links:
1. A
Birdlife Perspective
2.
Mau in the News
3. More
news on the Mau
There is also
a
community group that is trying to save the Mau and see also
the story of the
Ogiek
You can also download a report done by the UNEP about the
destruction of the Mau **here**
( PDF)
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