News 2005

14 Jul 2005

By Andrew Cawthorne

President Mwai Kibaki's government recently ordered the removal of peasant farmers on the edge of the vast Mau Forest in the Rift Valley, saying the evictions were the start of a campaign to save the east African nation's natural resources.

But the force used and lack of alternatives offered the farmers has turned the campaign into political dynamite and a brewing humanitarian crisis.

The farmers -- estimated with their families at between 10,000 and 50,000 -- say they were evicted at short notice by police who fired guns in the air, used teargas, beat them with whips, torched homes, stole goods and gave them nowhere to go.

A month later, most of them live in tatty makeshift shelters beside roads, or squat with relatives, still clutching title deeds they say the security forces laughed at.

"They beat us and burned our homes. They gave no warning, no reason," said Henry Ngeno, 25, who first ran into the trees for fear when a Reuters vehicle approached his burnt-out settlement.

"We have nothing, no food for our children. We are here to pick up the remains of our maize and potatoes, but if they see us, they beat us," added the father of two, showing a deed for his purchase of a 4 hectare (10 acre) plot in 2000.

The government, which took over in 2002 promising a fresh democratic start after 24 years under strongman Daniel arap Moi, also defended the evictions as righting past wrongs of land illegally apportioned or sold under Moi.

Most of the Mau Forest area farmers are, like Moi, from sub-clans of the Kalenjin tribe. Many obtained properties in the run-up to the 2002 election.

"As a result of illegal allocations of forest and trust lands and the illegal occupation of forest areas, our nation is in trouble," government spokesman Alfred Mutua said, adding that national forest cover had been decimated, to just 1.7 percent.

MORE EVICTIONS PROMISED

The government says the evictions, albeit with "a human face", will next extend to the Mount Kenya and Mount Elgon regions -- also important catchment areas for major rivers.

But the allegations of brutality and ongoing plight of the homeless has galvanised opposition.

"Zimbabwe-style evictions of people are no solution to the looming forest and land crisis," said the Ogiek Support Programme, referring to the recent crackdown by Robert Mugabe's government leaving some 300,000 homeless in poor townships.

A group of 29 Kenyan MPs this week issued a statement condemning the "callous, tribal" evictions and threatening to lead the peasants back on to their land.

That would be a potentially explosive development in a nation sadly familiar with deadly land clashes.

One local MP, William Ruto, told Reuters the government was flouting a court order prohibiting more evictions. "They should stick to the law, that's the basic minimum," he said.

Witnesses told Reuters on a recent trip to the area that as well as the thousands of homes destroyed, the security forces torched some 33 churches, 13 schools and eight clinics. Some women were raped and money was stolen from them, they alleged.

"They are tempting us, to see if we start a war," said Richard Tangus, a pastor whose Africa Gospel Church was razed.

"But we are a peaceful people."

Officials from the local Narok County Council declined to speak to Reuters about the reports of violence.

The Kenya Red Cross estimates 20,000-30,000 people have been left homeless. It has taken in one major delivery of emergency supplies -- including 10,400 blankets and 2,600 jerry-cans -- but is nervous of a second visit due to insecurity in the area.

"We were given five minutes to vacate my house. We showed them title deeds. They said they were useless pieces of paper," said single mother Everlin Sitonik, standing in the rubble of a former market area known as Sierra Leone.

"I have seven children. How can we survive now?"

(Additional reporting by Garrick Anderson)

SOURCE

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