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New battle over
Ogiek land
by John Kamau and Jennifer Wanjiru, Rights Features Service
(October
29, 2001) The Kenyan government has announced that it will go
ahead and collect more than 170,000 acres of public forest for
private use. Among the targeted forests is the one inhabited by
the Ogiek indigenous community, who may finally lose their cultural
land.
From the
Great Rift Valley's Mau Forests alone, where the Ogiek live, the
Government says it will apportion off nearly 150,000 acres of
the 170,000 countrywide.
"That is
unthinkable," says leading international campaigner Prof. Wangari
Maathai of the Green Belt Movement.
The Ogiek
have vowed to go to court over the current notice. Their lawyer
Kathurima M'Inoti has given the minister for environment, Katana
Ngala, a seven-day notice to rescind the decision or be taken
to court for contempt of a court order.
The Ogiek
say that any excision or alienation of parts of East Mau Forest
would be a blatant violation of High Court orders and by extension
contempt of court.
Mr. M'Inoti
has also sent Mr. Ngala a copy of a court order issued on October
15, 1997 that reads, in part, "there shall be no further allocation
of the suit land until the issues in dispute are resolved in court."
The current
announcement by the government has sparked yet another outcry
in Nairobi with opposition leaders and environmentalists demanding
a proper explanation.
Rights Features
Service has reliably learned that the matter will be raised in
Parliament on Thursday this week by Imenti MP Gitobu Imanyara
in a motion that will censure the government over the matter.
The latest
developments are published in the official government newsletter
Kenya Gazette, where all government notices are published, and
dated October 19.
Last February,
the then Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Francis
Nyenze, provoked anger in the country after he gave a 28-day notice
to excise the land but faced petitions opposing the move.
The Ogiek
went to High Court in Nairobi over the issue but their case has
yet to be heard, and they have been under pressure from the government
to withdraw the case.
In the notice
sent to the minister by the Ogiek lawyer, the minister is reminded
that on February 16 the ministry published gazette notice No.
889 indicating its intention to excise 35,301 hectares of the
forest, the Ogiek went to court and the excision was halted last
March 15.
"The order
halting the hiving-off parts of the Mau Forest," Mr. Kathurima
wrote, "is still in force and has not been vacated or appealed
from."
Another case
was lodged in the western Kenya court at Eldoret but was dismissed
by the court on technical grounds and the government given a go-ahead
to carve up the land.
Another case,
filed by the Green Belt Movement, Mazingira Institute, Kenya Human
Rights Commission, and Forest Action Network, has yet to be heard.
"We have
been informed that our file [on the case] has gone missing from
the High Court," says Prof. Maathai of Green Belt Movement.
The current
authority to alter the forest boundaries was signed by the minister
on October 8, shortly after the High Court ruling after the Eldoret
case.
The forests
to be cut up include the Ogiek's home of Eastern Mau, Southeastern,
and Western Mau and they will be cut up as follows: 35,301 ha
(88,252 acres) from Eastern Mau Forest, 24,109 ha (60,272 acres)
from Southeastern and Western Mau, and 324 ha (810 acres) from
Western Mau Forest.
Democratic
Party Secretary-General Joseph Munyao, who is the shadow minister
for environment, reminded the minister that the parliamentary
committee on environment summoned then Minister for Environment
Francis Nyenze, who had signed the first excision notice, and
Minister for Lands Joseph Nyagah over the same matter. The Democratic
Party is the official opposition party of Kenya.
"The two
assured the committee [in March] that the forests would not be
annexed until a session paper was tabled in Parliament for discussion,"
says Munyao, who also says he will raise the matter in parliament.
And in a
radical twist, Kabete MP Paul Muite asked Kenyans to organize
themselves in groups and resist the move.
"They should
organize themselves and uproot beacons and physically eject any
surveyors and allotees," says the MP.
For her part,
Prof. Maathai said the Government had proven that it had no respect
for the law. "We are dealing with crooks who are so greedy and
corrupt that you have to bite them like a dog would to free a
piece of meat," said Prof. Maathai. "Such actions confirm what
we have said on so many occasions, namely that the leadership
in the ministry of environment and natural resources is indeed
very irresponsible."
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