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Kenyan ministers'
row over 'grabbed' forest
land deepens divisions in Narc
please see also the comment
Monday, April 4, 2005
By GAKUU MATHENGE
Special Correspondent
Clashes within Kenya's fractious
ruling coalition extended last week to involve government
policies, with Lands and Housing Minister Amos Kimunya declaring
that the ongoing evictions in forests were a Cabinet decision and
would continue, in defiance of his Environment Ministry
counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka, who is opposed to the exercise.
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| A
map showing Mau Complex and other water catchment areas |
"Once we finish setting out
the boundaries, all those found within forests will have to
validate their title deeds because the forest land was not
available for allocation in the first place. No matter what anyone
says, the origin of the titles is doubtful.
"Indeed, it is no different
from other public utility lands that the government has earmarked
for restoration to the original purpose," Mr Kimunya told The
East- African in an exclusive interview last Friday.He said
all holders of title deeds issued for forest land will need to
have their documents validated.
On Wednesday, Mr Musy- oka, under
whose docket forests fall, became the first Cabinet minister to
oppose the planned evictions that started last month.
Speaking in Nakuru, the minister,
who is a lawyer, said the evictions were against the law and he
would not endorse them because the land carved out of forests had
title deeds "which were recognised by the government."
"As the Minister for
Environment, I will not endorse the planned evictions of squatters
from their land. The rule of law must prevail," Mr Musyoka
reportedly told a consultative meeting attended by leaders from
the Rift Valley Province in Nakuru. He said the evictions would
not solve the problems associated with forest land.
His position resonates with
arguments raised by the Kenya Bankers Association, which has
insisted that since the titles were issued by the government, it
has a duty to protect the holders. Banks stand to lose an
estimated Ksh65 billion ($844,155) in loans and advances given to
holders of such title deeds.
But Mr Kimunya said, "We are
working closely with the Attorney-General's office to draft a Bill
to amend the law to provide for the formation of a land titles
tribunal. It will have quasi-judicial powers just like the Land
Acquisitions Tribunal and its decisions will be binding. There is
no going back and Amos Wako [the A-G] has assured me that the Bill
will be tabled in Parliament soon."
He added, "The Tribunal is
only going to create the framework for the cancellation of
doubtful titles. This means even situations not captured in the
Ndung'u Report can always be brought forward for deliberation."
The evictions are based on radical
recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry
into Irregular and Illegal Allocations of Public Land since
Independence, popularly known as the Ndung'u Commission. It was
chaired by Nairobi lawyer Paul Ndung'u. It handed over its report
to President Mwai Kibaki in June last year.
Among key recomend- ations by the
report was the revocation of all title deeds granted over the
years "whose origin is of doubtful validity."
However, revocation of titles
cannot be done outside the judicial system and the Commission
recommended amendments to the Government Land Act, Cap 280, and
the registration of Titles Act, Cap 281, that vests the powers to
cancel titles deeds in the High Court.
The Commission further proposed the
establishment of a quasi-judicial land titles tribunal to
implement the proposed revocation of illegal title deeds.
Mr Kimunya said he had authorised
all government departments, including Local Authorities, forestry,
military and state corporations to immediately embark on the
recovery of any of their land that may have been passed on to
individuals, businesses and religious organisations.
"There is a lot going on, all
government departments have the mandate to recover any of their
properties that may have been grabbed. They don't have to wait for
the tribunal as the land had been reserved for public utility and
not personal gain. Local authorities also have the mandate to
reclaim all public utility land that was illegally allocated by
the previous regime," he added.
It is, however, feared that that
the reclamation of forest land and the evictions could become a
bone of contention between Narc's feuding factions – the
National Alliance Party of Kenya, to which Mr Kimunya belongs, and
Mr Musyoka's Liberal Democratic Party.
The allocation of forests raised an
outcry when the Kanu government degazetted huge tracts of land in
2001.
In its haste to allocate the land,
Kanu never bothered to degazette the forests, to legalise the
allocations, giving the Narc government room to justify the
evictions.
Although the protests against the
evictions have so far been confined to backbenchers and Kanu MPs
from Rift Valley, the position taken by Mr Musyoka is likely to
trigger protests against evictions in other forests in the country.
But it is instructive that Finance Minister David Mwiraria made no
protest when hundreds of his constituents were evicted from
Sirimon area of Mt Kenya forest in February.
According to the Ndung'u Report,
there are more than 200,000 "illegal and irregular title
deeds, which raise the possibility of a massive revocations and
ratification process. Most of the deeds are in the more recently
developed settlement schemes and forest excisions. The bulk of
these titles were issued in the past 12 -15 years."
The report identifies forests land
illegally allocated whose revocation it recommends – covering
34,273 hectares of indigenous forest in Eastern and South-Western
Mau Forest Reserve, 8,700 hectares hived off Mt Elgon forest to
create the Chepyuk settlement scheme, 531 hectares of Kapolet
forest and 11,000 hectares of Embobuti forest, both in Marakwet
district.
Others are 10,270 hectar- es of
indigenous forests and wildlife habitat destroy- ed following the
excision of the Marmanet and Gitundaga forests in Laikipia
district.
Excision of over 297,000 hectares
has reduced the forest cover in Kenya from 1.7 million hectares to
1.4 million hectares, which is 2.5 per cent of the total land
area, but only 1.7 per cent which is closed canopy forest.
"According to international
standards, a country with less than 10 per cent of its area under
closed canopy forest is environmentally unstable. Forest excisions
have severely affected the five main water towers of Mt Kenya, Mau
Complex, Mt Elgon, Cherangani and the Aberdares," the report
adds.
It further notes that the
progressive excision of forests and resultant chaos is in
contravention of all environmental agreements and conventions that
Kenya has signed. These include the Convention of Biological
Diversity, the Framework Convention of Climate Change and the
Ramsar Convention, among others.
Source: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Regional/Regional7.html
COMMENT:
Ministers of the post(neo-)-colonial government of Kenya clash over land
and forests, which are not theirs - what a farce! (see article below)
The facts remain:
1) The British Colonial Government had invaded and occupied also the Mau forest - the homeland of the Ogiek Nation - and oppressed the ancient owners of that land, dispossessed the indigenous people and already then turned the forests i.a. into tea farms. Likewise the British forcibly occupied also the lands of at least 55 clearly distinct other native peoples in "their land of Kenya", while forming their colony for the British King and subsequent Queen and carving out a substantial plot of East-Africa for their own good.
2) The Governance, which was put in place after the so called independence, just maintains this illegal and unwanted dominion, while the powerful tribes (nations) of Kenya (i.a. Kikuyu, Kamba, Luya and Luo) together with the face- and "tribe-less" so called modern Kenyans, which hold the fat bank-accounts, battle for dominance in the central government and engage in so far unsuccessful struggles for a new constitution - unsuccessful because of these are not the battles of statesmen and leaders for a better future of their people but mere wrangles for the last resources of the country.
3) UN referenda, like the one where in NE Kenya the local people declared that they didn't want to belong to Kenya, were neglected like the many requests from many peoples (nations and tribes) for more own autonomy and less oppression by the central Kenyan governance. But the roadmap to a more egalitarian federal governance structure was thrown into the dustbin several times, because it would curb the money-elitists and central powers of much income, which otherwise could benefit the various regions and peoples, who live in outright poverty.
4) Environmental concerns are pushed by the para-green helpers of the corporate military-industrial complex, which mainly battle for the water resources, the timber and potential land for tea or carbon-sequestration scams, blindfolding even human rights organizations in the same way as unscrupulous politicians mastermind squatters and settlers as their front soldiers, their flag- or vote-bearer and their land-grabbers. It is an outright governance induced guerilla warfare with international complacency against the Ogiek.
5) Do the marionettes in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, which is still suffering from the heavy footprint of foreign influence (e.g. as the only location of a UN Agency in a developing nation), while bearing already the largest slum of Africa, not realize that they can only set themselves, who are continuously bullied by global powers and money-shakers as well as their Kenyan collaborators, truly free, if they allow and push what the colonialists had robbed from the Ogiek back into their forests: FREEDOM, SELF-DETERMINATION AND PEACE!
LISTEN TO THE OGIEK THEMSELVES and not to green hogwash or corporate PR scams or their respective
"politicians".
go to http://www.ogiek.org
THERE IS NOT ONE OGIEK IN THE KENYAN
PARLIAMENT, which fostered and allowed and still permits that the land and the forests and the peace of the Ogiek
are torn apart!
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