Saving Kenya’s Forests

Category: Conservation | Date: Nov 09 2007 | By: admin

Following up on the Maasai Mau post below, one of Kenya’s daily, the East African Standard reports that over 10,000 people evicted from the forest are moving back. The paper says, “President Kibaki during one of his campaign tours in the Rift Valley and, ostensibly after being ‘prevailed’ upon by local leaders, directed the Mau forest evictees be allowed to return”. The paper then rightly questions the commitment to conservation of this forest, in view of this latest development. Clearly the impact the return of this number of people will have on the forest will be extensive.

The government had promised to compensate holders of genuine title deeds that were affected by the evictions by finding them alternative land. A task force was even set up and the people affected registered. But nothing, as far as we know, has happened. We know that settlement of squatters was budgeted for by government this year - Kshs 1.3 billion for squatters and internally displaced persons - but we are not sure whether this included the Maasai Mau evictees.

Tomorrow, Saturday 10 November 2007, the Party of National Unity (PNU) - the platform through which the President is seeking re-election - will be launching its manifesto. It will be interesting to see what the party is promising to do as far as forests or natural resources are concerned.

We will keep you updated on the situation as well as other developments in the area including efforts to remedy this situation.