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TRIBAL ELDERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
WORKERS ARRESTED
Thu, 6 Apr 2000
KENYA:
Several elders of the Ogiek tribal
community were arrested, together with three people from the
Kenyan Human Rights Commission and eight from the 'Citizens
Coalition for Constitutional Change' theatre group, on Thursday 30
March in Tinet, Nakuru District. They are being held in the nearby
police station at Molo.
They had been holding a meeting to protest against the eviction of
the 5,000 strong Ogiek community from their land in Tinet Forest.
The Ogiek have always lived by hunting and collecting honey (for
which they are famous) in the forests of that part of Kenya.
Nowadays they combine this with some farming and livestock keeping.
Last week the Nairobi High Court ruled that the Kenyan Government
had the right to evict the Ogiek from Tinet Forest on the grounds
that it is a nature reserve.
However observers believe the real
reason is that members of the Kenyan elite want the land for
purposes such as tea plantations. The lawyers of the Ogiek
community of Tinet are to lodge an appeal next Monday 3
April against the evictions.
Survival's campaigns officer,
Virginia Luling, commented: 'Evidently the intention of the
arrests is to interfere with the appeal and terrorise the people.'
For more information please see
Survival's website at http://www.survival-international.org
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