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Demarcation and
allocation in East Mau Forest has begun
by Sang J. K., Ogiek Welfare Council
The following
statement was issued in Nairobi by the Ogiek Welfare Council and
distributed by Rights Features Service. The Ogiek Welfare Council,
P.O. Box 12069, Nakuru, Kenya. E-mail: ogiek@africaonline.co.ke.
(January
12, 2001) The demarcation and allocation of land in East Mau Forest
has begun.
It was officially
announced on Thursday 4th. Jan. 2001 by the Elburgon District
Officer (D.O.) who was accompanied by a team of surveyors and
Officer Commanding Police Station (Elburgon) Inspector Otundo.
"This is purely a government project which is legal, and anybody
interfering with it will face the full force of the law," said
the D.O., addressing a group of more than 300 land speculators
outside the district, who had gathered in Mariashoni chief's office.
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UPDATE:
DEMARCATING LAND
By
demarcating land in East Mau Forest, the Kenyan government
has violated the spirit,
if not the letter, of the High Court's injunction,
according to Survival International.
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Demarcation
and allocation of land in East Mau Forest was stopped by the High
Court of Kenya following an application by the Ogiek community
on Oct. 15, 1997. The injunction was ordered until the matter
is solved and determined by the court. The government has on different
occasions been violating the order by secretly allocating the
land to powerful politicians and senior civil servants. "We are
in process of demarcating the cutline in readiness of degazettement,"
said Ole Serian, Nakuru District Commissioner, addressing the
OWC officials on 3rd. Jan 2001 during a courtesy call to his office.
The government
is violating the order so as to intimidate the Ogiek and further
weaken them in their struggle. The Ogiek are resisting the government
efforts of alienating their ancestral lands which for many years
have been serving as a forest reserve. The Ogiek depend heavily
on this forests for domestic bee-keeping and gathering wild fruits
and animals. The Government move to evict the Ogiek and subdivide
the forest pose a very serious threat to very existence of Kenya's
smallest tribe and also could also lead to serious environmental
disasters. Mau Forest is a home of about 10,000 Ogiek indigenous
people and a water catchments for major rivers and lakes in the
region.
Yours
in struggle,
Sang
J. K.
Ogiek Welfare Council
Nakuru, Kenya
Editor's
Note: This letter was edited slightly for readability.
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