KENYA: Residents of Mau forest have been moving out of the endangered water catchment area after a deadline expired last week

Record ID: 361627

  • Title: KENYA: Residents of Mau forest have been moving out of the endangered water catchment area after a deadline expired last week
  • Date: 18th November 2009
  • Summary: MORE OF SQUATTERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9GAT43ETKW2VCM3R750P4CQGX
  • Story Text: Kenya Forest rangers and local policemen invaded various camps within the Mau forest, north west of the capital Nairobi and forcefully evicted hundreds of settlers.
    The move is the second phase of the government-led eviction process in the country's biggest forest area, which experts claim has been largely degraded over the decades.
    The latest efforts to reclaim the forest led by the Prime Minister's office began as thousands of former forest settlers set up camp in more than 15 areas around the expansive South Western part of the forest.
    The locals said that hundreds of armed police men invaded the camp in the Chematich area of Saino forest and demolished hundreds of makeshift tents put up by settlers.
    "The government officers or personnel who came here with full uniform, they started cutting down our shelters, they demolished everything and there we were waiting for the government to assist us but we were surprised, we were crying. Who are we?" said displaced Mau forest resident, Philip Kiprono.
    The Mau forest has become a major source of controversy in Kenya in recent weeks after the planned relocation of some 20,000 families from their homes.
    Forestry and Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa says the evictions will be conducted humanely and without force, and that allowances will be made for students taking national exams and those who had food crops which were not yet ready to harvest.
    The Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) says the Mau Forest complex, which serves as a water tower for an estimated 10 million Kenyans, has lost 24 percent, or 107,000 hectares (264,400 acres), of its trees over the last 20 years due to illegal settlement and subsequent deforestation.
    The settlers, many of whom were sold false title deeds, reject the government's position that they have no right to the land and have expressed concern as to where they will live.
    "Since the government announced that we get out of the forest, what they call a forest, of which in our thinking it is not a forest because they had given us, they gave us this land, they gave us allotment letters. This shows that the place was granted by the government," said Kiprono.
    Kenya's new coalition government set up a task force last year to reverse the Mau destruction, which UNEP says could cost the tourism, tea and energy sectors alone at least 300 million US dollars.
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