Lobby accuse government of failing to protect environment
Ms Halima Ndeve, 85, leader of a Kamba lobby that promotes environmental conservation addresses journalists in Kibwezi Town on October 12, 2015. The group, that held prayers at the source of dried up Kibwezi River, blamed government officials for the disappearance of the once permanent river. PHOTO | PIUS MAUNDU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Thome Wa Akamba, a lobby advocating for the protection of the environment through customary interventions, on Monday held prayers at the river’s source in Kibwezi Town, Makueni County.
- Ms Ndeve’s sentiments came in the wake of a protracted resentment between the local county government and the Kibwezi Forest Station over the management of Kibwezi Forest.
Failure by the government to protect Kibwezi forest is the reason why Kibwezi River has dried up, a lobby has said.
Thome Wa Akamba, a lobby advocating for the protection of the environment through customary interventions, on Monday held prayers at the river’s source in Kibwezi Town, Makueni County.
“Government officials have allowed residents here to tamper with the river’s catchment,” said Ms Halima Ndeve, 85, the leader of the group comprising mainly octogenarians, when she emerged from a thicket where they had been camping.
She told reporters that the group was on a mission to salvage all rivers in the area and protect the forests that house their places of worship.
Although she did not drop names, Ms Ndeve blamed Water Resources Users Associations (WRUA), saying that instead of preserving rivers, the associations have promoted their destruction.
“All the rivers where the government has installed WRUA officials have been destroyed,” said Ms Ndeve to the ululation of her legion.
She added: “It is unwise to lock out a sugarcane farm when the sugarcane thieves are inside.”
Ms Ndeve’s sentiments came in the wake of a protracted resentment between the local county government and the Kibwezi Forest Station over the management of Kibwezi Forest.
Recently, the local government banned area residents from grazing their animals and collecting firewood from the forest, saying the move is necessitated by a need to give the forest time to regenerate.
Some residents last week demonstrated against the move, saying that the county government should allow them to continue accessing the forest.
Addressing the demonstrators who had threatened to set the forest on fire, the head of Kibwezi Forest Station Mr Joseph Mwangi, who licences the residents to access the forest, said that the plan to evict the residents from the forest should be gradual.
Asked, Mr Douglas Mbilu, the County Executive in charge of Environment maintained that the county government would not relent on its ban on the access of the forest.
“We shall face a crisis if we allow the uncontrolled harvesting of firewood, grazing, logging and setting fires in our forests,” he said.
Just like the firewood harvesters who pay Kenya Forest Service Sh100 per month per person to harvest a single headload every day, Mr Mwangi said that the villagers only went for dry firewood.
On his part, Mr Mbilu said that the forest cannot sustain “systematic logging disguised as firewood collection,” and that those who graze inside the forest are not ordinary herders but livestock traders preying on the miniscule charges to fatten their animals.
But on Monday, Mr Mwangi softened his stand, declaring that the water tower is out of bounds to all, and promising that he would no longer be licensing grazing and collection of firewood.
“Because of the pressure on the forest, we have decided to give the forest time to rebuild,” he told Nation at his office, “so we have banned grazing and firewood collection.”
