Destruction and encroachment into the Mau Forests is creating concern among conservationists four months after President Uhuru Kenyatta took office.
More settlements have sprung up in the last 100 days and logging is going on in the 400,000-hectare Mau Forest, the largest water tower in East Africa.
Conservationists are worried that the Kenyatta administration is not keen on protecting forests and the general environment.
Immediately, he was declared the President-elect, people who laid no claim over the controversial water catchment tower trooped in as Government functionaries and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) watched helplessly.
“Efforts to save Mau Forest will not succeed. The issue has become political with those responsible for protecting it shying away. It will now become much difficult to evict thousands of squatters who have invaded it because when elections will be called again, they will be needed because of ‘tyranny of numbers’,” says Nick Murero, the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem Coordinator for Lake Victoria Basin.
He says since the beginning of the year, more settlements have sprung up around the Mau complex and unhindered logging continued. Murero said arrests, prosecutions and warnings have not hindered the encroachment.
Political good will
Conservationists are asking themselves if the situation could have been different had CORD leader Raila Odinga clinched the presidency.
Deputy President William Ruto and the former PM’s political relationship in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) soured when Raila spearheaded efforts to evict squatters from the forest.
Narok County KFS Coordinator James Mburu said more than 60 invaders have been arrested since January. Mr Mburu says politicians are interfering with conservation and rehabilitation of the forest.
“We have stepped up efforts to save it but there is no political will. Often, when we arrest or evict squatters, politicians intervene, making our work difficult,” adds Mburu who also says courts of law have also been lenient to offenders.
“There have been instances when we have taken forest invaders and loggers to court only for them to be given fines that are not commensurate with what they have destroyed. Others have been left to continue transporting illegal forest products,” he adds.
Eviction notice
When he visited Sierra Leone area of the 146,800-hectare Maasai Mau forest two months ago, the then Narok South DC Chimwaga Mongo asked squatters who had invaded Olpusimoru Government Forest Reserve — part of the blocks that form the Mau Complex — to move out voluntarily or be forcefully evicted.
But nothing has been done to evict them with new settlements coming up every day. Surveys on all roads leading to the expansive forest showed lorries, tractors and trucks transporting logs to Bomet, Nakuru and Nairobi markets.
“There are senior people in this Government who are involved in big time logging. They are the people who are encouraging forest invasion because they know if the forest is cleared of settlements, they will lose,” says Murero.
He warns that some sections of the forest are on the verge of being depleted because of logging which mainly targets white podo and other endangered species of trees, charcoal burning and wanton clearing for settlements.
Murero called on conservation agencies, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the international community to apply pressure on the government to act and save the forest.
The invasion of the then dense Mau forest begun in the early 1980s when parts of the complex were hived off to pave way for settlements and tea plantations.
The Mau Forest Steering Committee chairman, Hassan Noor, says after they carried out verification of Maasai Mau forest claimants, 12,000 families were found to be eligible for the Sh3 billion compensation package.
Compensation
Noor blames the then Ministry of Finance of frustrating efforts to save the forest.
“We had identified the families for compensation but our efforts to deal with the matter once and for all was frustrated by the Treasury three years ago after we sent a proposal for the release of the money,” he laments.
William Cheruiyot, the spokesperson of the Maasai Mau Forest Claimants says they are tired of being used as “political pawns” and want the Government to compensate them for them to move out.
“The issue surrounding the forest could have been solved a long time ago. The Kibaki administration in 2005 kicked us out before allowing us back in 2007 for political reasons. We are tired of being used as pawns,” says Cheruiyot.
By Kipchumba Kemei, The Standard
