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200 Ogiek kicked
out of farm, six elders arrested, says paper
by
John Kamau, Rights Features Service
(February
6, 2001) Some 200 members of the Ogiek community living in Narok
District, in southern Kenya, have been evicted from Esinoni group
ranch and six elders arrested, a local daily has reported.
The People
Daily quoted the director of Ogiek Rural Integrated Projects
(ORIP), Charles Saina Sena, as saying that the eviction had been
ordered by an administration official.
The eviction
highlights the continued struggle of the Ogiek in Kenya to have
land of their own rather than stay as squatters.
Although
recent events had centered on the Ogiek living in East Mau —
regarded as the ancestral home of the Ogiek — it now appears
that the Ogiek living in the "diaspora" are also facing a similar
land crisis as their East Mau counterparts.
Sena told
the Kenyan daily that his efforts to secure the release of the
six elderly men had hit a snag because the local police boss said
that the arrests had been ordered by the district officer, a government
officer in charge of administration.
"Why should
the Ogiek be viewed by the government as second class people in
any land deal"?" Sena posed.
He threatened
to mobilize the community in the country to "hold a huge demonstration
against the government for continued harassment and failure to
address their squatter status despite their community having supported
[Kenyan President Daniel arap] Moi and his government for many
years."
Sena told
the paper that the main dispute started when the Ogiek demanded
their inclusion in the ongoing subdivision of Esinoni group ranch
to Ogiek members on the grounds that they had lived there since
time immemorial.
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