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The Ogiek of Kenya - evicted from the forest
Another African land-grab
Apr 4th 2002 | MAU FOREST
From The Economist print edition
In Kenya, it is politically correct to burn forests and evict indigenous people
ON A high slope above the Great Rift Valley, Kiprono Sigilai, a hunter-gatherer, sniffs the breeze, smells smoke and deduces that an election is coming. His woodsman's skills do not deceive him. Every time a poll is near, members of President Daniel arap Moi's group, the Kalenjin, are allowed to grab chunks of forest inhabited by Mr Sigilai's tribe, the Ogiek. This ensures that the Kalenjin fervently support Mr Moi, but the forest suffers. The newcomers fell trees, burn bushes and graze cattle on what is left.
The Mau forest, where the Ogiek live, was protected by court orders, but that was a frail defence against the government. With a vote due this year, Mr Moi's party, the Kenya African National Union, is unpopular and broke. So it has decided to clear 68,000 hectares (167,000 acres) of woodland, mainly in the Mau forest. Most of the 20,000 Ogiek have already lost their livelihood to loggers. Now they face eviction to make way for "politically-correct people", as Kenyans call the Kalenjin.
This is not only bad for the Ogiek; it is bad for Kenya, too. The country is mostly arid or semi-arid, and depends for water on a few wooded catchment areas. The forests regulate the water cycle: they soak up rain during the wet season and then gradually release it. The Mau forest supplies two-fifths of the country with water. Its destruction is already causing problems. Of the six big rivers flowing into the Rift Valley, five have become seasonal in recent years and one has almost dried up. The country is slowly recovering from a three-year drought, which has left 2.5m people dependent on food aid. This is hardly the time to lay waste more woodland.
The Ogiek have subsisted peacefully for centuries, hunting tree hyrax (tasty small furry mammals, improbably related to elephants) and harvesting honey. But there are now fewer than 500 old-fashioned Ogiek. The environment ministry is supposed to guard their forest home, but periodically sends in thugs to flatten their huts, making way for loggers. One of the last traditional Ogiek, Topiko Minjil, shows off some of his people's dying skills. He kills an antelope with an arrow. He races up a tree trunk and descends with a sopping honeycomb. And he plucks green medicinal shoots from the ground. "This is for gonorrhoea," he says, holding a specimen up to the dappled light. "That's another thing the Kalenjin brought us."
Source: The Economist
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