|
Carve up the forest,
court rules
By John Kamau, Rights Features Service
(October
5, 2001) A Kenyan High Court has approved the carving up of 167,000
acres of forestland, a decision that could see the ultimate loss
of the Ogiek cultural land.
In a ruling
that has shocked environmentalists in Kenya, the High Court gave
the government a green light to excise 12 forests and give the
land to individual speculators.
In February
the government had in a legal notice announced
its intention to carve up 10 percent of Kenya's forest cover
and give the land to "the landless," a move environmentalists
challenged in the western Kenya court of Eldoret.
Some 70 percent
of the intended excision was to take place in the Ogiek-inhabited
Mau Forest, which is also the subject of another legal case that
opened yesterday in Nairobi.
The ruling
is now being interpreted as a blow to the Ogiek quest for a forest
homeland, and unless the court order is blocked the government
may go ahead and hive huge parts of Mau forest.
Delivering
the ruling on behalf of Lady Justice Reselyne Nambuye, who has
been transferred to another court, Justice Omondi Tunya dismissed
a petition lodged by environmental lawyer Nixon Sifuna challenging
the intended excision of 12 forests. Among the forests were three
in the Mau complex — Eastern Mau, South Western Mau, and
Western Mau.
The judge
said that the suit was "improper" and refused to order
the minister for environment to implement the Environment Coordination
Act of 1999 that spells the governance of all forests in the country.
It now remains
to be seen what implications the decision will have on the pending
case lodged by the Ogiek community at the High Court in Nairobi.
|
