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Local Struggles Vs. Corporate Politics In Forest Policy
OGIEK CASE AT CSD8
THE STRUGGLE OF THE OGIEK WILL BE DISCUSSED AT THE
CSD8 !
CSD8 SIDE EVENT
3-5PM Tues. 2 MAY 2000
Conference Room A
Local Struggles Vs. Corporate Politics In Forest Policy - Open Forum and Case Studies -
Bring Your Case Study Or Testimoney To Share
Forum includes:
18 min. screening of the "Timber GAP" Video--The connection between
Profit Driven Corporations:
Explotation of Frests & Swetshop Labor--From the California USA
Redwoods to Saipan Sweatshops to the WTO Protests In Seattle
(sponsored by Plight Of The Redwoods Campaign)
Simone Lovera presents for Sobrevivencial & Friends of the Earth
Paraguay: Export Driven Agriculture & Deforestation
Ecoterra International on the Eviction of the Ogiek Forest Peoples
from Their Tinet Forest Dwellings in Kenya.
(This forum Sponsored By the Forest Caucus)
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ECOTERRA - Survival for People and Nature
FIRST PEOPLES & NATURE FIRST!
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Baseline info:
Green smokescreen for the eviction of forest people
The Nairobi High Court was packed to the roof on 23.March 2000. Behind
the row of advocates in their wigs and gowns sat the representatives
of the Ogiek community of forest-dwellers and honey -gatherers, also
formally dressed in in hyrax-fur cloaks and head-dresses decorated with cowrie
shells. The crowd of people present - those from other Ogiek communities, there
out of solidarity, the journalists, human rights observers, and members of the Kenyan public - showed how much interest
this case had aroused.
Together we waited for the final judgment on a lawsuit that has been
going on since May 1999: was the Kenyan Government within its rights
in evicting 5,000 Ogiek tribespeople from Tinet Forest?
(Tinet, about 150 kilometres north-west of Nairobi, is part of the
much larger Mau Forest, ancestral home of the Ogiek people.)
The advocates for the Ogiek had argued that this was the ancestral
land of the community; that nine years ago the government had agreed
that they could stay there and granted them each a five-acre plot; and
that depriving them of access to the forest and its products infringed
their right to life and livelihood. Survival supporters and others had written from all over the
world in their support.
But - when they finally appeared - judges Samuel Oguk and Richard Kuloba dismissed the Ogiek's case and found that they
had no right whatever to continue living in Tinet. The tone of the
judgment was harsh and contemptuous, as though the judges were determined not only
to deny the title of the Tinet Ogiek, but also to frighten off any other group of people who might try to
make a similar claim.
The judges dismissed both the claim of the Ogiek to be indigenous to
Tinet, and the fact - which is common knowledge - that large chunks of
this land have already been given to powerful non-Ogiek
individuals. The authorities, they said, had belatedly recognised that Tinet is a
water catchment area as well as a gazetted forest and conservation
area, and so had lawfully revoked their earlier plan to let the Ogiek
remain.
The judgment climaxed in an outburst of environmental rhetoric clearly
aimed at enlisting the support of the green lobby. 'The eviction is
for the purpose of saving the whole of Kenya from a possible
environmental disaster.' The Ogiek, the judges alleged, had engaged in
'massive developments' which disqualified them from living in the forest. One would think that their small farm plots and
scattered
wooden schoolhouses and shops were the principal threat to Kenya's
environment.
Nothing was said about the real threats - the huge logging operations
which have been destroying other parts of the Mau forest, the tea plantations owned by a company belonging to President
Moi, or the intensive cultivation of flowers for export. There was
no mention of the handsome house and large estate owned by Zakayo Cheruiyot,
Permanent Secretary for Provincial Administration and Internal Security in the Office of the President.
Nobody has proposed to evict him. Yet observers have little doubt that
interests like these are the real forces behind the judgment.
The Ogiek have suffered a severe blow. Some women were in tears. But
the community remains defiant and will appeal against the judgment.
One man said, 'We refuse to give up hoping - Tinet is still our home.'
Their advocate Mirugi Kariuki said, 'This is a historic case. It is
important they get full opportunity to appeal.' Kariuki actually represented the Catholic Church in
this case, which was allowed to stand by the Ogiek as plaintiff, because
the argument that the Catholic Church is an interested party to the
case due to its vast investments in form of schools and churches for
these people was accepted by the High Court. However, in the ruling the
fact that there were built schools and churches and market- places was
used exactly against the Ogiek, because the court found that this is
evidence enough for the fact that the Ogiek had given up their traditional
lifestyle, which would depend on the forest. Therefore the judges found that such changed lifestyle with churches,
schools and market-places could be lived anywhere in Kenya by the Ogiek and
therefore they had no argument to stay any longer at Tinet Forest and
could be resettled.
The judges later agreed to halt the evictions for two weeks while the
appeal is filed.
Though the Court of Appeal then first refused to grant the application
for a stay concerning the eviction order a status as matter of urgency
and the deadline expired, the same court accepted a second application
and within 60 days after the 23. of March the appeal has to be elaborated and filed.
In the meantime 13 Human Rights Defenders and Ogiek elders, who did
nothing else than executing their constitutional right to educate others, were arrested by the police forces, but after
massive protests released each on a KSh 25.000.- bail.
We are still requesting you to keep up the pressure on the Kenya authorities to drop the charges against all human
rights defenders and de-criminalise human rights and civic education.
The full text of the ruling to be appealed can be requested from:
ECOTERRA Intl. < ogiek@ecoterra.net
>
Meanwhile arsonists had torched the forests along the Mau escarpment
as well as at the Aberdare Range, where the largest forest fires in
history were reported this year in March. That is also a way how to
clear land and prepare it for degazettment. Luckily the rains have
started now
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ECOTERRA - Freedom for People and Nature
FIRST PEOPLES & NATURE FIRST!
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