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Maasai
want to see Kenyan president
by John Kamau, Rights Features Service
(February
6, 2001) The Mau Forest saga took a new twist today when some
500 people from Olpusimoru location in Narok District demanded
an immediate audience with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi to
address the issue.
The move
follows a revelation by senior Cabinet minister William ole Ntimama
that a part of Mau Forest in Narok District has been grabbed.
Led by a
community elder, James Montoi, the locals from the Maasai
indigenous group expressed anger over the illegal allocation
of their land by some corrupt land and provincial administration
officers. They threatened to stage a demonstration to condemn
the civic leaders from Narok District Council, who the minister
said had been allocated 100 acres each of the expansive forest.
The hue started
after Ntimama, a minister in the office of the president, came
out publicly and condemned the continued
destruction of the Mau Forest, which is at the center of an
international campaign.
Ntimama,
the most senior politician from the Maasai tribe, has vowed to
front the fight to ensure that the Mau forest remains intact.
Other sections
of the Mau, especially the East Mau area, have been threatened
by continued logging and destruction, with the Ogiek's staging
numerous court cases seeking to stop settlement of outsiders within
the forest which they regard as their ancestral land. The Ogiek
rely on the forest for honey and hunting of small animals, while
to the Maasai, the Mau Forest is the source of water for their
livestock and grazing ground during the dry season.
Journalists
who attended the Ntimama rally at Lasit Trading Center told the
Nairobi-based Rights Features Service that the provincial administration
was caught off-guard by the minister's sudden criticism of the
government.
"The Provincial
Commissioner was there and he was surprised by the minister's
remarks. Also present was the chairman of the Narok county council
which is at the center of the scandal and none of them denied
the facts as told by Ntimama," said one journalist, Ephantus Matega.
The provincial
commissioner, Francis Baya, has promised to investigate the alleged
grabbing and take action.
The Narok
County Council chairman, Stephen Ntoros, has however not denied
that his councillors have been given some 100 acres each of the
Mau Forest.
Environmentalists
argue that the destruction of the Mau Forest will not only deprive
the Ogiek a cultural homeland but will also interfere with the
Maasai livelihood since the Mau Forest is their only source of
water.
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