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Most farmers who had planted crops in Government forests in Keiyo District had by yesterday complied with the notice to vacate the land.

Others were removing their crops, some of which were not ready for harvesting.

Keiyo District Commissioner Shadrack Mwadime said he was pleased that the residents were obeying the order. He repeated his earlier pledge that the Government did not intent to punish communities benefiting from non-residential cultivation in its forests.

Instead, it planned to put in place measures to protect the environment and also benefit those in forests' neighbourhoods.

"Let those being asked to leave the forests understand that there is no ill motive behind the exercise. We are not out to victimise individuals or communities deriving their livelihood from forest land," Mr Mwadime said as he addressed journalists in his office yesterday.

Several farmers went to the district headquarters to ask the provincial administration to allow them more time to harvest crops.

They said they were ready to comply with the quit order issued by Environment minister Newton Kulundu but feared that they would lose their harvest.

They said most maize was still green.

Mr Mwadime said although the country's food security needed to be safeguarded, the Government would not backtrack on its order requiring non-residential cultivators to leave.

District security committees have been ordered to stop all activities in public forests and farmers were given up to last December 31 to leave gazetted forests.

In Nakuru, DC Patrick Osare said more than 300 structures in Eburu forest would be demolished following the expiry of the Government's quit notice.

He claimed that most of the families that had settled in Eburu invaded the forest last year "under a political arrangement".

But he said farmers in Bahati and Dundori had agreed to harvest their crops and leave the forest. He told members of the Okiek community, who claim that the forest was their ancestral land, to leave first and raise their grievances later.

But the chairman of the Okiek Welfare Council, Mr Kimaiyo Towett, said the community had pending cases with the Government about their settlement in the forest. "The minister should not have issued such a blanket directive considering the fact that the Okiek have all along lived in the forest."