|
Kenyan cabinet minister
now supports Ogiek
by
Jennifer Wanjiru, Rights Features Service
(April 11,
2002) A senior Kenyan cabinet minister has asked the Ogiek and
Maasai tribes who were being evicted from Enoosopukia (in Narok
District) to defy the order.
In the new
twist to the Ogiek eviction saga, the minister in the Office of
the President, William ole Ntimama, was quoted in the local dailies
today asking the groups to stay.
"The decree
and pronouncements are not supported by the law of the land...I
ask them to stay put and do their business as usual," Ntimama
is quoted by Kenya's Daily Nation.
The Ogiek
and Maasai communities residing here had been given up to April
8 to leave by the Narok District Commissioner Joseph Kimiywi.
The administrator was later supported by Rift Valley Provincial
Commissioner Peter Raburu who said that Enoosupukia was a water
catchment area and should not be inhabited.
But elders
from the two communities say that Enoosupukia is their ancestral
land vowed not to leave.
The area
is inhabited by the Ogiek and the Maasai clans of Pulko, Ildamat,
and Keekinyoki.
In 1992 some
tribes that were destroying the Enosopukia water catchment were
evicted but the Ogiek and Maasai were spared.
The elders
say that the land is being targeted by land grabbers who want
to seize the land.
"We are not
squatters; this is our land and the DC must stop harassing us,"
the elders were quoted saying.
Ngong Diocese
Bishop Collins Davis and Diocese Peace and Justice Coordinator
Mr. Godfrey Lemiso have thrown their support to the group.
"Dialogue
is the way forward. The Provincial Commissioner should come here
and listen to you," said the bishop.
The cabinet
minister has asked the PC to order a halt of the East Mau forest
if he is serious about water catchments.
The Ogiek
who live in East Mau have gone to court over that ancestral land
and their case comes up in court on April 24.
|
