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Police
cancel Ogiek fete
by John Kamau, Rights Features Service
(December
9, 2000) Police on December 9 cancelled a cultural fete organized
by the indigenous Ogiek tribe of Kenya and ordered everyone to
go back home.
The two-day
fete was organized by the Ogiek Welfare Council to coincide with
the International Human Rights Day.
The police
had insisted that they had come to learn about the fete two days
earlier "and had not organized security."
But the Ogiek
leaders dismissed the police "fear" as yet another plot to frustrate
the Ogiek who have taken the government and senior officials to
court over continued destruction of the Mau Forests where the
Ogieks inhabit as honey-hunters.
After negotiating
with the Ogiek Welfare Council spokesman, J. K. Toweett, the police
agreed that the Ogiek apply for a new date which was quickly fixed
as December 23, 2000.
The police
officer expressed surprise that the Ogiek had turned up in large
numbers for "an unlicensed meeting" and hardly go for "national
celebrations."
Although
cultural and political meetings are no longer required to be licensed,
it was not clear the police officers from the local Elburgon Police
Station insisted that they had not issued a permit.
The officers,
who also included a local chief, ordered the Ogiek to quickly
consume the food they had cooked and disperse.
"We are sorry
that there will be no meeting today, we were not told about this
meeting and it cannot continue," said a police officer who refused
to give his name.
The police
had arrived at the scene as early as 10 p.m. and waited for the
organizers to arrive. "They started intimidating us and wanted
to know why we had built a traditional Ogiek hut here," said David
Barngetuny.
"We have
wasted a lot of food and money. Why don't they allow us to celebrate
our culture," asked a bitter Francis Lesingo. "We feel intimidated
by these maneuvers."
When a team
of Ogiek leaders and this writer arrived at the celebration scene
at Marioshoni village, men and women were speaking in low tones
after being intimidated to eat the food before the celebration
had started.
Told by this
writer that cultural meetings do not require a license the police
officer insisted that they "do not want to be ambushed. Anything
can happen here and you will start saying the government failed
to protect the people."
Two traditional
Ogiek huts had been built in a fenced perimeter of roughly four
acres where the Ogiek Welfare Council wants to put up a small
museum and tree nursery to replace the destroyed forest land.
"We will
write to them again and inform them that we will hold a celebration
on December 23," said Towett.
Later some
Ogiek youths condemned the cancellation as part of a wider scheme
by the government to frustrate the Ogiek.
"Why do they
say we need security to hold a cultural meeting. They should have
provided that security because they were here since morning",
said Joseph Barngetuny.
"We are very
peaceful people, we even gave them meat," said Barngetuny.
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