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Mau Forest: Minister
appeals to the president
by Jennifer Wanjuru, Rights Features Service
(February
15, 2001) Kenyan cabinet minister William ole Ntimama has repeated
his claim that powerful individuals within the government want
to grab part of Mau Forest and the Maasai-inhabited Mara Game
Reserve in southern Kenya and appealed to President Moi to intervene.
 "I
am helpless," Ntimama told a press conference on his desire to
save Mau Forest from land grabbers. "I now appeal to higher authorities
[a term used in Kenya to refer to the president] to intervene."
Ntimama,
a minister in the office of the president, recently waged a campaign
against unnamed individuals whom he said wanted to steal the heritage
of the Maasai indigenous group
by destroying the Mau Forest reserve in his Narok District.
At a press
conference held at Harambee House, Nairobi, where he is a minister
in the office of the president, Ntimama charged that the recent
change of guard within the Narok County Council and replacement
of the former town clerk, Saruni ole Kudate, with a Mr. Michael
Koikai, was a plot by powerful individuals to grab Maasai land.
"Koikai is
being used by some godfathers to steal Maasai land. We will not
allow him to do the dirty work," vowed Ntimama.
The minister
threw his support to workers at Narok District Council who on
February 13 staged a demonstration against the return of Koikai
at the districtcouncil. Koikai was forced out of office some two
years ago but was returned on February 12 by the minister for
local government.
Ntimama said
that the appointment should be sanctioned by the Public Service
Commission, a body that employs all civil servants in Kenya.
The minister
said: "It boggles the mind to imagine that somebody will impose
Koikai on Narok County Council."
Narok District
Council is regarded to be the wealthiest in the country because
it runs the game rich Mara Game Reserve. Of late some unscrupulous
individuals had been targeting this land to establish tourist
resorts and deny the Maasai any income from the reserve. Although
the county council holds the Maasai-inhabited land as a trust
and any income from tourism collected by the council is channeled
to Maasai projects in the district, individuals who secure a title
deed and a tourist resort built on that land pays part of the
income to the title deed holder rather than the district council.
It is this
feud that is the bone of contention and that attracts land grabbers
to Maasai land to capitalize on their rich heritage and abundance
of wildlife.
The minister
recently revealed how councillors within this Maasai land district
council had allocated themselves 100 acres each of the expansive
Mau Forest.
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