News
Settlers want to leave Mau, politicians don’t
Members of the Ogiek community who live in the Nessuit area of the Mau Forest display title deeds they say were issued to them by the government in the 1990s. Photo/JOSEPH KIHERI and WILLIAM OERI
Posted Sunday, August 2 2009 at 22:30
Farmers who got land in the Mau Forest Complex are ready to leave the water catchment area... but politicians have been telling them to stay put.
Most of the settlers interviewed by the Nation said they were willing to pave the way for the rehabilitation of Kenya’s largest water tower as long as they are adequately compensated.
But they do not know what to do because politicians have been telling them to stay put even as the government says they have to leave. And as politicians wrangle over the forest, a report paints a clear picture of the immense importance of this vital water tower.
Mau Complex under Siege: Values and Threats, a joint presentation of the United Nations Environmental Programme, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forests Working Group, and Ewaso Ngiro South Development Authority, which was published in May last year, tells the great potential and grim reality of the fast dwindling forest complex.
The Mau Complex covers some 40,000 hectares which is as large as Mount Kenya and the Aberdares combined. It is the largest forest cover in Kenya. The other four water towers are Mount Kenya, the Abardare Ranges, Mount Elgon and the Cherangany Hills.
Drying up
Rivers with their sources in the Mau have been drying up at an alarming rate with devastating consequences in such places as Lake Nakuru, the second most visited destination in Kenya; and the Maasai Mara.
This year, the migration of the wildebeest has not been spectacular because the drama of the beasts crossing the River Mara as crocodiles hunt them down by the dozen is absent as many of the crocodiles die due to lack of water on the river.
The report also seeks to highlight the international nature of the water tower. Three of the lakes fed by the rivers originating in Mau are cross boundary. They are lakes Victoria, Turkana and Natron.
All these are threatened by encroachment into the forest, which is also key to people’s livelihood. Some five million people live in area crossed by rivers originating in Mau.
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Submitted by naliweliwaloPosted August 03, 2009 06:53 PM
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Submitted by yesuwangu
let everyone move and also the government should bring wild animals in the forest to help protect and preserve the forest from humans.Animals like gorillers,tigerss,leopards,monkeys which live in forest like congo forest.halafu ukirudi huko shauri yako.
Posted August 03, 2009 06:01 PM -
Submitted by vgogero
Well as far as Kenyans are concerned we need to know how they occupied and acquired the land in the first place who did they buy it from and how much the one who sold it to them must be the one to compensate them as the saying go buyer be ware
Posted August 03, 2009 05:07 PM -
Submitted by PMM75
may be am sadistic,,but hpw do we pay pple who have destroyed the water tower? It only happens in kenya,,being paid to destroy
Posted August 02, 2009 11:21 PM
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Thank you Nation for this piece. Wananchi are usually lied to by politicians and are usually willing to do the right thing. The cabinet has spoken about the evacuation, the actual land owners do not have a problem, so what's the problem? We should drum up more support for the re-forestation of all our forests, not just Mau!