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NOTES
62
David Okwembah, "Dorobo Elders Write to Moi", East African Standard,
30 May 1996.
63
"DC: Government to Settle Bona Fide Dorobos", Daily Nation,
1 June 1996.
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The story of the Ogiek
is a story of harassment, promises and more promises but none of
them has been fulfilled.
In June 1996 after a
letter62 was written to President
Moi, the new Nakuru District Commissioner promised that the government
would settle all the bona fide Ogieks at Nessuit Forest.63
For the first time, the Ogieks sighed with relief as the DC denied
that the forest had been allocated to outsiders. He asked the Ogieks
to be patient and assured them that they would soon be settled.
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| 64
"Help us live in Our Ancestral Land and Retain Both Our Human and
Cultural Identities as Kenyans of Ogiek Origin", a memorandum submitted
to all Members of parliament by the Representatives of Kenyans of
Ogiek Community living in Nessuit and Marioshoni Parts of the Mau
Forest, dated July 15, 1996. |
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Having
heard the same promises before the Ogiek elders of Nessuit and Marioshoni
wrote a memorandum64 and submitted
it to all members of parliament. In the memorandum the elders lamented
that they were "unable to secure audience with President Moi to
tell him that the "Ogieks" who had seen him on November 4, 1995
and staked claims to our birth right ...were pretenders from Kericho,
Bomet, Baringo, and other districts".
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65
"36 MPs Plead over Dorobo", East African Standard, 19 July
1996.
66
"Molo Kanu Civic Men Plead for Dorobos", East African Standard,
24 July 1996.
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Armed
with this document 36 members of the opposition in parliament pleaded
with the government to investigate the plight of the Ogieks.65
On July 23, five councillors from Molo appealed to the government
and well-wishers to assist members of the Ogiek community in the
area to uplift their economic, health and educational standards.66
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| 67
"MPs to table Dorobo motion", Daily Nation, 4 October 1996. |
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The pleads continued
on October 3 when three opposition members of parliament, Paul Muite,
Raila Odinga and Kiraitu Murungi promised to table a motion in parliament
seeking the formation of a Select Committee to address the plight
of the Ogiek.67 The three said
that the plight of the Ogiek was a matter of national concern but
that was the furthest that the parliament came to discussing the
Ogiek issue. That was yet another dead promise on the Ogiek.
Previously the government
had promised to table the Kenya Forest Draft Bill which was to address
the relationship between communities living in or near the forest
in conservation.. The bill was at first supposed to be tabled in
1996, then 1998 and then 1999. But this bill was dismissed as "exclusive,
elitist, and non participatory".
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| 68
Evans Ombiro, "Forest Communities demand say in Bill", Daily Nation,
May 25, 2000. |
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"Communities
living in and around forests were never consulted, had no input
in the draft despite being the main consumers and protectors of
the forest", said Dominic Walubengo, the director of Forest Action
Network.68
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| 69
"Wodera James, "Forests Bill due soon", The People, 26 March
1999. |
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Also the government had
also promised to table the Environmental Management and Co-ordination
bill but nothing happened.69
The draft bill is an
offshoot of the 1992 Kenya Forestry Master Plan whose main objective
was to come up with a policy that would ensure the sustainable management
of the country's forests. But there appears to be no political will
to go ahead with the bill.
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| 70
Evans Ombiro, "Forest Communities demand say in Bill", Daily Nation,
25 May 2000. |
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"We
looked at the new draft bill and saw that although communities are
mentioned, they were not consulted as to where they will contribute
to the management of the forests and how they will benefit", says70
Walubengo who has taken the bill to the communities for input.
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| 71
See Mark Agutu, "Forests under siege", Daily Nation, 11 January
2000. |
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The
government has of late been promising. In January 2000 the Permanent
Secretary in the ministry of natural resources Dr Mohammed Isahakia
promised71 that they will "integrate
local communities into conservation of forests" but that is better
said than done. The administration which had been officiating the
destruction of the Mau forests told the same meeting that it is
the "shortage of forest guards and lenient judicial sentences" that
were to blame for the destruction.
Government officials
have been accused of participating in logging activities and of
allocating themselves large tracts of land in the forest for tree
harvesting. Rather than address the situation the government has
been playing a cat-and-mouse game in the saga to a point of saying
it has sent investigators to probe the continuing destruction of
forests and expressing shock that such a thing could happen.
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| 72
Barnabas Bii, "Team dispatched to probe logging", East African
Standard, 29 March 2000.
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"It is shocking for
forestry officials to be engaged in logging despite a government
ban on the practice", says E.K. Korir, the Rift valley Provincial
Forestry Officer.72
Of course there is no
such ban since three major companies were exempted from the ban
and this was yet another lie that the issue of destruction was
being addressed at the top level. MORE>>
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