|
Ogiek case set for
February 21
by Jennifer Wanjiru, Rights Features Service
(December
11, 2001) A case in which the Ogiek community has sued the government
over its intention to degazette parts of the expansive Mau Forest
will now be heard on February 21 next year, the Ogiek Welfare
Council confirmed today.
"We are now
prepared to argue this case," said Ogiek Welfare Council (OWC)
spokesman Joseph Towett.
The case
was filed early in February when the government went ahead and
decided to remove large parts of the land inhabited by the Ogiek
community from the protection of the Forest Act to allow other
communities to settle in the land.
The Ogiek
argue that this is their ancestral land and because of their numbers
they could face extinction as a distinct community.
"We are fighting
assimilation while also protecting our homeland," said Towett.
In October
a Kenyan High Court okayed the carving up of 167,000 acres of
forestland, a decision that could see the ultimate loss of the
Ogiek cultural land.
Some 70 percent
of the intended excision is to take place in the Ogiek-inhabited
Mau Forest, which is also the subject of the Ogiek legal case
set for February.
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.
On October
15, 1997 the High Court ordered that "there shall be no further
allocation of the suit land until the issues in dispute are resolved
in court."
A constitutional
case filed in 1997 by the Ogiek over the Mau Forest land has yet
to be heard and the government has been intimidating the Ogiek
to drop the cases.
Another forest
case filed by the Green Belt Movement, Mazingira Institute, Kenya
Human Rights Commission, and Forest Action Network filed in March
this year has yet to be heard too.
"Our file
has gone missing from the High Court," says Prof. Wangari Maathai
of Green Belt Movement.
The current
authority to alter the forest boundaries was signed by the minister
for environment on October 8 despite the pending cases.
The forests
to be cut up includes Ogiek's home of Eastern Mau, South Eastern,
and Western Mau. They will be cut up as follows: 35,301 ha (88,252
acres) from Eastern Mau Forest; 24,109 ha (60,272 acres) from
South Eastern and Western Mau; and 324 ha (810 acres) from Western
Mau Forest.
|
