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NOTES
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The Ogieks have been
under constant threats while the general public has been misinformed
about their plight.
Several of them have
been arrested on fabricated charges and intimidated by the security
force. Their only crime is to oppose the invasion of their land.
|
| 73
"Settling of Dorobo Community going on well, say DO", Kenya Times,
23 October 1996. |
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Even when the Ogiek elders
were denouncing the continued invasion of the Ogiek land, the ruling
party owned Kenya Times was used to convey the message that the
settling of the Ogieks was going on well.73
The then area District officer Peter Kingok at the same time contradicted
himself by saying that the "security forces in the Njoro Division
had exposed some conmen who had tried to issue bogus allotment letters".
This was followed with a warning to the Ogiek not to politicise
the settlement exercise as by so doing would derail the programme.
This was interpreted
to be a thinly veiled threat to the Ogiek not to talk about the
new comers who were getting their land otherwise the whole exercise
would be called off.
There was a brief silence
among the Ogieks hoping that diplomacy would prevail. But after
six months of non-activity the Ogiek nationalism was sparked when
it emerged on April 1997 that even a 10-acre stretch of land set
aside for a trading centre at Sururu had also been sold. The Ogiek
came out in protest.
"We have been taken
for granted for a long time, but we cannot continue remaining silent
when what is meant to be ours by right is taken away", said Ogiek
representative, Joseph Cheruiyot.
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74
Dorobos complain over allocated land", Daily Nation, 17 April
1997.
75
"Claim Dismissed", Daily Nation, 19 April 1997.
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Cheruiyot told the press
that it had come to light that people who had land in Kericho district
had masqueraded as Ogieks and got land in Sururu.74
The administration through a local chief, Nicholas Ruto, decided
to react by dismissing the allegations as "alarmist".75
It is now known that
the provincial administration used the Ogiek chiefs to intimidate,
and harass those who opposed the allocation of five-acres per household.
Even those Ogieks who had accepted the five acres soon found that
they did not own the land.
Kiprono Sigilai was one
of them and his story resembles many others. Sigilai's five-acre
plot, which had been registred in government files, had been given
to a man of the Tugen sub-tribe. On March 15, 1999 a house which
Sigilai had built at the plot was torched. Sigilai reported the
matter to the local assistant chief Daniel Ngurure but nothing was
done.
|
| 76
Munuhe Gichuki, Ogiek elders struggle to repossess ancestral land,
The People, 9 April 1999. |
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"Now that they want
to drive us to extinction, where is our ancestral land? We should
be treated like other tribes by being allowed to stay on this land,
as it is our reserve. Other tribes in Kenya have their own reserves
and own districts", says Sigialai.76
Joseph Letuya was arrested
on April 4, 1997 and taken to Elburgon police station for "illegally
building a house in the forest". Letuya was arraigned in Molo Court
and fined shillings 500. After a months stay Milimani Remand Prison
in Nakuru town Letuya found that a wooden house had been erected
on the same contested plot.
In February 1999 elders
do recall that the District Officer at Elburgon visited them and
told them to withdraw the case in court otherwise they would not
get any title deeds.
On 25 October 1999 Ogiek
elders once again called a press conference in Nairobi in which
they now demanded that the government state its stand on the issue
of Ogiek ancestral land.
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| 77
Odindo Ayieko, "The Ogiek intensify struggle for land", The People,
26 October 1999. |
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The press conference
led by Ogiek Welfare Council chairman, Joseph Kimaiyo Towett revealed
that President Moi had on September 29 toured the Mau Forest but
had refused to give any assurance to the Ogiek.77
On the court case, (see
chapter 6) Towett said the case was being postponed to frustrate
them. A day after that press conference the case was fixed for November
18.
But after that press
conference the government moved in and arrested three Ogiek land
settlement members including Charles Rono, former chief Joseph Kiplele
arap Rorogu and Joseph Barno. They were accused of fraudulently
obtaining Kenya shillings 1.16 million from Bomet farmers. Curiously
the three had been accusing people from Bomet of taking away their
land.
|
| 78
Kariuki Kamau, "Ogiek Land: Committee now placed on Defence", East
African Standard, 30 October 1999. |
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When
the case came up Rono told the court that he was simply in court
because he had protested the invasion of Ogiek land by Kipsigis
farmers from Bomet. But state prosecutor, Moses Mbeda, said that
the assertion by the defence that the charges were politically instigated
were baseless. For his part the former Ogiek chief Rorogu said he
was even sacked after he arrested Kipsigis tribesmen who had invaded
Ogiek land. He alleged that some powerful people from the Kipsigis
community had influenced his sacking by claiming that he was even
recruiting Ogieks to join an opposition party.78
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| 79
Kariuki Kamau, "Court Frees Ogiek Settlement Officials", East African
Standard, 13 October 1999. |
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But senior resident magistrate
Stella Munai Muketi, released the three saying the evidence adduced
in court "was weak".79
The Ogiek have seen numerous
cases brought against them which include "trespassing, creating
disturbance, and illegal subdivision" of their land. The following
are just a sample of criminal cases brought on the Ogiek in the
last 4 years alone.
- Republic vs Richard
Sitienei Barsoi cr. 449/99 (Molo)
- Republic vs General
Lemunge Saning'o cr. 1242/99 (Molo)
- Republic vs Salim
Chemaina Taleti cr. 844/2000 (Molo)
- Republic vs Joseph
Kimaiyo and 12 others cr. 2237/96 (Molo)/P>
- Republic vs Joseph
Kipkemoi and 26 others cr.2247/97 (Molo)
- Republic vs Martin
Kiptiony and 2 others cr.2239/96 (Molo)
- Republic vs Joseph
Letuya cr. 451/97 (Molo)
- Republic vs Samson
Kipkurui Mereno cr. 2252/96 (Molo)
- Republic vs Francis
Rungira cr. 592/97 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs Joseph
Lenduse cr. 1718/99 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs Samson
Kipchirchir Kibitwa cr. 1094/99 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs Joseph
Kimaiyo and another cr. 656/99 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs Sembui
Oris and 5 others cr. 557/97 (Molo)
- Republic vs James
Rana and another cr. 1013/2000 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs Joseph
Kusak cr. 1197/2000 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs Patrick
Kibet Kuresoy cr.1732/2000 (Nakuru)
- Republic vs. Patrick
Kibet Kuresoy cr. 1734/2000 (Nakuru)
In most of these cases
plain cloth policemen are always present in courts all in a bid
to intimidate the Ogieks. The Ogiek lawyer, Juma Kiplenge agrees
that the courts have been used to harass the Ogiek.
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| 80
Interview with our researcher at his office. |
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"It is true that there
is genuine harassment of the Ogiek by the provincial administration
using the courts".80
Another Ogiek lawyer,
Mirugi Kariuki concurs and blames the judiciary for failing to follow
up the continued subdivision of Ogiek land despite a court injunction.
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81
Interview with our researcher at his Nakuru office, 30 August 2000.
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"Legal trickery
is being used to defeat the original owners of the land...if the
appeal fails then we may have to look for a solution in post Moi
era".81
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