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Ogiek protest intended
excision of Mau Forest
by
Joseph K. Towett, 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.
(February
15, 2001) The Ogiek Welfare Council wishes to protest the intended
excision of Mau Forest, which is our ancestral land. This is a
deliberate effort to defeat justice since we have court cases
pending in court over the invasion of our ancestral land.
We have impeccable
information from government sources that plans to degazette parts
of Mau Forest have been mooted and finalised.
This is a
conspiracy to defeat justice. We have several suits pending in
court over the same issue and we cannot understand the logic of
degazetting the land if it is not to have our cases overtaken
by events.
The degazettement
of Mau Forest will not only deny us justice but will deny the
Ogiek community a land they can call their own. We are aware that
the intended excision of our land is intended to forestall justice
and ahead of debate on Forest Bill 2000.
We believe
that the fate of Ogiek land has been sealed and that settlement
of other people in our land is meant to create tension and deny
us any right to the land.
We have lived
in the Mau Forest since time immemorial and we hold it dear because
we rely on it as our living habitat and our culture is based on
the forest.
The so-called
degazettement will not only lead to destruction of the forest
but will lead to large-scale interference with the Mau ecology.
The communities
jockeying for power must realise that they cannot use the Mau
Forest land as their bait to get votes while putting an innocent
community at risk of being trampled upon.
We are witnessing
a final onslaught on the Ogiek people as an indigenous community
but we warn that we will not allow this continued abuse to continue.
We will thus challenge any attempt to steal our forestland and
hand it over to other communities under the pretext that it has
been government land.
The Kenya
government, even the colonialists, found us in Mau Forest and
there is no way they can argue that this land was not without
its inhabitants.
We continue
to demand the recognition of this land as Ogiek ancestral land.
It is us who have conserved the forest because we know what it
means to us, and it is for the benefit of our children that we
protest.
Joseph
Kimaiyo Towett
Chairman,
Ogiek Welfare Council
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