|
Kenyan opposition
party defends Ogiek
by Rights Features Service
(January
18, 2001) The official opposition party in Kenya, Democratic Party,
threw its weight behind the Ogiek yesterday and urged the government
to respect their rights as an indigenous community.
In a brief
statement released from the Nakuru branch, the party said the
government has no alternative but to recognize the Ogiek as the
true inhabitants of East Mau forest.
The party
warned that if the government interferes with the cultural protection
of the forest by the Ogiek then that would be the end of that
rainforest.
"The community
has for years protected the Mau, Tinet, and Molo forests and it
is important for the government to keep off", said the party.
The Democratic
Party statement comes in the wake of renewed pressure from the
international community to have the Kenya government stop logging
and destruction of Mau Forest, the ancestral home of the Ogiek
community.
|
