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Kenya:
Judges Rule In Favour Of
Environment
Panafrican News Agency
March 27, 2000
by Tervil Okoko
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Undeterred by unruly status quo and
modernity, the Ogiek people of Kenya have fought a losing legal
battle over their habitat and heritage as a court ruled in favour
of the environment.
Identifiable by the traditional
regalia of skin-wrapper and a handy club, the Ogiek people are a
minority living in the expansive enclave of the central Rift
Valley.
They still stick to their
traditional way of life and regard natural forests as their
habitat.
Caught between a cultural conflict
and political imbalances brought about by modernity and
civilisation, the Ogiek, officially referred to in Kenya as Dorobo,
took the Kenya government to court for evicting them from their
land in 1999.
However, the high court, sitting in
Nairobi, Thursday dismissed the protracted suit, saying it was for
the benefit of the environment.
"The eviction is for the
purpose of saving the whole of Kenya from a possible environmental
disaster and it is being carried out for the common good within
the statutory powers," judges Samuel Oguk and Richard Kuloba
said.
They added that their verdict was
aimed at people who have made homes in forests and are exploiting
its resources without following the statutory requirements, yet
they have alternative land given to them since the colonial days,
which is not shown to be inhospitable.
The Ogiek, who number about 5,000,
had sued the government seeking a declaration that their eviction
from Tinet forest, about 250 km west of Nairobi, contravenes their
rights to the protection of the law, not to be discriminated
against, and to reside in any part of Kenya.
They also wanted a declaration that
their right to life has been contravened by the forceful eviction
from the forest. They were also seeking orders that the government
compensate them besides paying costs of the suit.
However, the court dismissed all
their prayers but put the costs to the government.
Besides the court case that has
been running for more than one year, the Ogiek, who are the only
other indigenous community in Kenya apart from their Maasai
neighbours, claim a group of corrupt individuals had invaded
forest land previously inhabited by their kin before they were
evicted by the government.
Prior to the verdict, leaders of
the community, led by lawyer Juma Kiplenge, complained that the
state intended to intimidate them into dropping the court case by
harassing their spokesmen.
Two community leaders, Ezekiel
Kesendany and outspoken former chief Joseph Rorogu are currently
on the run from the provincial authorities.
Kesendany has been grilled by the
local security committee on allegations that he took foreigners to
trespass on Tinet forest where the community has resided for ages.
To them, the government is not
honest when it says it is protecting the environment for the
common good. The Ogiek accuse some powerful individuals close to
leading politicians of wanting to grab their ancestral land.
But even as these people shed tears
about the loss of their ancestral land, large chunks of the land
have already been hived off the forest land.
"It is ironical that the state
was very keen to evict the Ogiek on grounds that Tinet is a
gazetted forest conservation and water catchment area yet some
powerful people are busy alienating it from the Kiptagich (northern)
side," David Sitienei, chairman of the ruling KANU party for
Tinet, said.
While Sitienei is being hounded for
having been frank, Kesendany is being hunted for having taken
officials from the Kenya Human Rights Commission and Catholic
church for a tour of the area some time in November.
Before the conclusion of the court
case, it was argued by state counsel, Judy Madahan, that the Ogiek
community abandoned the land they were allocated in 1941 and went
back to the forest.
According to the state, the
community was given land in Kipsigis Native Reserve but they
abandoned it and went back to the forest.
"Later, they moved back slowly
into the south eastern Mau Forest resulting in another eviction in
1956," Madahan told the court in December.
The Kipsigis Native Reserve became
Kipsigis Trust Land and an adjudication area in 1970. Madahan said
any rights which the Ogieks had in Kipsigis Native Reserve were
voided by the adjudication.
As a result of the lapse, other
Kenyans took advantage of the Ogiek's failure to participate in
the land re-distribution after independence and registered
themselves as Ogieks for purposes of acquiring the Kipsigis Trust
Land.
The Ogiek consequently found
themselves back in the forest after their land was taken by other
Kenyans.
"The Ogiek have been
short-changed and that is a violation of their right to land and
cultural heritage," lawyer Juma Kiplenge, who has been
battling the Ogiek land cases in court for two years, said.
Theirs has been a struggle. In
1977, the community was chucked out of the forest again, but they
went back.
"What the authorities seem not
to understand is that the Ogiek are a people who live in forests
as their natural habitat and not just any kind of land. But many
modern Kenyans are taking advantage of these people and that is
why they do not want to understand the Ogiek way of life the same
way they understand the Maasai," Kiplenge added..
A committee was formed in 1929 to
look into issues affecting the Ogiek and they gave recommendations
on how best to resettle the community throughout Kenya and not
those in Tinet Forest only.
The Ogiek are believed to be the
smallest Kalenjin sub-community and also the second least populous
in Kenya after the El-Molo, who live on the shores of Lake Turkana.
They are a hunting and
honey-gathering community who mainly farm bees in the expansive
100-mile Mau highland forest along the western escarpment of the
great Rift Valley in Molo South, Nakuru district.
Some of them, however, engage in
subsistence farming with a few being involved in livestock rearing.
In May 1999, the never-ending woes
of the Ogiek intensified when the government gave their 5,016
families a two-week ultimatum to vacate Tinet Forest.
Making the announcement, the Nakuru
district commissioner, John Litunda, also disbanded the
two-and-a-half year-old Ogiek Settlement Committee, accusing some
of its 54 members of abusing the settlement process for personal
gains.
But human rights bodies accuse the
government of being insensitive to the community's basic needs,
saying the Ogiek's right to land and natural habitat has been
trampled upon for too long.
They have called on the government
to revoke the eviction so that the community can live in peace in
their forest.
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