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Kenyan Environmentalist Wants
Lenders to Insist on Conservation
By Tom Osanjo
NAIROBI, Kenya, August 13, 2001
(ENS) -- Already under close donor scrutiny, the government of
Kenya may have more trouble ahead if lenders adopt an
environmental group's proposal that commitments to conservation be
part of the conditions for any loan.
The Green Belt Movement has written to the World Bank president
James Wolfensohn and the International Monetary Fund calling for
an evaluation of the government’s
commitment to environmental conservation before any further grants
or loans are given.
Green Belt coordinator Professor Wangari Maathai told a news
conference Thursday, "It is high time environmental
conservation was made part of the conditions before we can receive
donor support. It is quite unfortunate that the government is bent
on destroying forests and other national treasures, yet it says it
is committed to good governance."
The International Monetary Fund suspended disbursements to Kenya
late last year which severely affected the implementation of high
priority government programs, the
government said in a statement today.
If the World Bank Group donor agencies agree with Maathai’s
suggestion, it would be another obstacle in Kenya’s path towards
resumption of full aid.
Honored with many awards for environmental leadership, Maathai ran
unsuccessfully for president in the 1997 election representing the
Liberal Party of Kenya against incumbent President Daniel Arap
Moi, who has been in power since 1978.
She has long maintained that corruption in the Moi government has
prevented environmental conservation in the country. Kenya will
hold an election in 2002.
On August 8, Members of Parliament stalled a bill that would
entrench the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority in the constitution.
Today the government asked MPs to vote for the re-establishment of
the anti-corruption body tomorrow to avoid loss of Sh25 billion in
aid for the country.
In a statement, the government said vital private sector
investment may not be forthcoming should Parliament reject the
Bill.
A Nairobi court ruled last December that the Kenya Anti-Corruption
Authority had been constituted illegally, and that it has no power
to prosecute people suspected of
engaging in corrupt dealings. But the creation of the anti-graft
body was one of the
conditions donors gave Kenya to fulfill before aid could be
resumed.
Maathai said that environmental degradation is part of bad
governance, and the government must show it wants to conserve
natural resources for posterity.
She took issue with the decision by the government to excise a
forest and settle people on it. The administration when announcing
its decision said that it was hiving off parts of
Onturiri Forest in Meru District to settle landless people. This
is against a court order issued in June that stopped the
government from interfering with any of the forests.
Maathai said that Kenya is already operating far below the
international accepted forest
conservation standards, and that any additional destruction of the
forests would have
far reaching consequences for the country's rainfall pattern.
"Internationally, a country is supposed to have at least 10
percent of its total landmass as forest. Kenya is already far
below this and this is catastrophic especially for a country whose
main economic backbone is agriculture," she said.
Maathai appealed to MPs to follow India's lead and enact a law
that would bar foreigners from owning land in Kenya. "What we
are seeing is a situation where soon all the prime land would be
in the hands of foreigners while the average Kenyan is left to
live in the slums. It is the responsibility of our leaders to
enact such a law," she said.
In August 2000, the World Bank approved a US$150 million credit to
support Kenya's economic recovery efforts. This is the first new
credit to Kenya from the World Bank in three years with the
exception of the extraordinary El Nino Emergency Project credit
that was approved in 1998 to assist in the reconstruction of
infrastructure destroyed by floods.
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