The Ogiek people of Kenya may soon become the world’s most recent refugees of conservation efforts. Their long-time home is the Mau Forest in SW Kenya, a complex of 22 forests from which several rivers originate. The Mau Forest has been a center of conflict over land and resources for several years. In addition to the 20,000 Ogiek, thousands of loggers, squatters, tea-planters, and communities of resettled people have all had a severe impact on the forest.

Because the Mau is an important water catchment area and the forest has shrunk by one-quarter over the last 20 years, Kenyan officials are worried about permanent environmental damage and say residents must leave.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga gave the order on July 29 for all Ogiek residents to voluntarily leave the area by mid-September or face arrest.

But the Ogiek have so far resisted the order. The Ogiek People’s Development Programme (OPDP), in partnership with Minority Rights Group International (MRG) are fighting to avoid the eviction of the Ogiek community. They argue that they have lived sustainably in the area for centuries and that the environmental damage is the result of destructive logging carried out by corporations and newly arrived illegal squatters.

“Ogiek have been living in Mau for generations … here is a community which has co-existed with the forest over the years,” Ogiek leader Daniel Kobei told the AFP news agency.
On August 13, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki added to Prime Minister Odinga’s statement, “The government shall take action against people who destroy forests. Such people should not be spared at all, they should be arrested and charged with immediate effect.”

Kiplangat Cheruyot, of the Ogiek People’s Development Programme, told Survival International, “everyone has been living in fear for the last month. This is very serious, the Ogiek have nowhere else to go. People are crying about the eviction. The government said it would spare no one, not even a goat or a chicken.”

Some in the community are skeptical of the government’s purported environmentalism. In the same week the eviction was announced, 49 companies and individuals were granted lots of land in the Mau Forest totaling over 18,000 hectares. According to NTVKenya, one of the major benefactors was Sian Enterprises, a company allegedly associated with former Kenyan President Daniel Moi. Ilngima Contractors, a company owned by a family that holds other large tracts of land, was given 3,200 acres. In addition, four of the companies and a church organization to which 7,183 hectares of land is deeded may be non-existent, with no record in the national Registrar of Companies, according Daily Nation-Kenya.

The Mau forest is the largest of five water towers in a country currently experiencing widespread drought. According to UN environment agency specialist Christian Lambrechts, urgent action must be taken. Even former US President Bill Clinton has taken notice and has pledged to mobilize funds for planting trees to help conserve the Mau. Clinton met with the Prime Minister, the Environmental Minister, and the Public Health Minister this week at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Hassan Noor, interim Chairman of the Mau Forest plan, said that eviction notices will be given the final week of September. One area to the southwest of the Mau has been identified for resettling of some residents.

Yet many issues remain: Will there be conflict between resisters and police forces? Who will be compensated? Those with land titles are required to be compensated, but how much and on what basis? According to a new government document, more than 5,000 families will be required to leave the Mau Forest without compensation. Environment Minister John Michuki declared that only 1,962 people had chances of being compensated. The document describes resettlement as a plan “where the government provides alternative land for the dispossessed, along with livelihood support.”

The implementation and effects of that scheme will become more clear in the coming weeks.

Many settlers admit openly they don’t have an official title and yet others don’t care about compensation. “We don’t want compensation,” Kobei said. “You cannot compensate the bones of our ancestors that are in the Mau.”

The headmistress of a village primary school in the Mau named Rose told Minority Rights Group, “Removing the Ogiek from Mau is like taking fish out of water.”