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Plunder of Mau Forest a Threat
to 3m People
The East African Standard
(Nairobi)
February
25, 2004
Posted to the web February 25,
2004
Kipchumba
Kemei
Nairobi
The ongoing
destruction of the Mau catchment area is threatening the survival
of over three million people, a lobby has said.
The group said
if the destruction was not checked, tourism activities in the
Maasai Mara Game Reserve and the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem would
also suffer.
The Indigenous
Peoples Land Commission said the livelihood of the Maasai and
Ogiek communities, who depend on these resources, was also in
jeopardy.
Addressing the
Press after an extensive tour of Mau forest, commission officials
led by chairman Charles Sena and deputy Jackson Kamuye said the
destruction was creating poverty.
The officials
said the people of Narok District were suffering partly because of
failure by the Government to end the destruction and poor and
uninformed leadership.
They said local
leaders were condoning the destruction by using land as a
political tool, oblivious to the consequences.
The commission
said it was surprised that even members of the provincial
administration, including a serving District Commissioner and a
Member of Parliament, were involved in the plunder.
The group
demanded that all beneficiaries of forest land be evicted and
asked the DC, Mr John Egesa, to immediately disband the current
district environmental committee, which they claimed was abetting
the destruction.
They asked the
Narok County Council to establish, identify and mark boundaries of
Trust land and settlement areas to deter encroachment.
Council Clerk
Stanslous Ondimo said more than 2,000 acres of forest and Trust
land had been hived off and beneficiaries issued with title deeds.
Ondimo said all
allocations were illegally done in 1998.
Meanwhile, a
visiting official from the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous
People responsible for African affairs, Ms Ruth Jansen, said the
ongoing scramble for Mau forest was incredible as it was
displacing indigenous people who have a constitutional right to
own homes.
Link : http://allafrica.com/stories/200402250122.html
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