African Woman and Child Feature Service

True story of depletion as exhausted forest leaves communities bare

There was a time when Mau Forest was revered and it was a taboo to cut down some trees from within it. This is when the forest formed an impenetrable canopy. The forest was respected because it protected generations. It was the source of medicine, food and fuel.

Today, things are very different. The respect for the forest is no longer there. A visit to the Mau Forest, for instance, will reveal a bare ground of what was once a mass of indigenous trees being slowly replaced by plantations of exotic trees.

Coincidentally, the locals who used to inhabit the forest are now in tune with timber businessmen in cutting down the trees for firewood and charcoal. They claim to have no other sources of livelihood after the Government evicted them from the forest where they used to hunt and gather food.

The bees and animals that have survived because the forest is their natural habitat no longer have a home. Communities such as the Ogiek that relied on hunting and gathering for their livelihood are equally suffering. The Ogiek who were the original inhabitants of the Mau Forest have now become beggars because they are a people who have neither land nor skills on tilling the same.

“We cannot freely access the forest. Our bee hives no longer have a home and we cannot hunt animals partly because it is illegal,” laments Kobei, an Ogiek charcoal vender on the periphery of the forest. He adds: “Human activities in the forest have scared the animals away.”

Since time immemorial, the Ogiek heritage was thought of as having been built on a bond to the soil of their homeland. This instilled a belief that where they existed was where they belonged.

As such, the Mau Forest used to be the foundation of their community, tradition, and culture. Their social and economic livelihood depended on the natural resources of the forest, forming a partnership, which was based on mutual respect, a reality that is no more.

While there has been politicisation of evictions of people living within the Mau Forest, the fact remains that communities that rely on the forest as their source of livelihood are suffering.

Speaking at a media dialogue on Mau forest and environment conservation organised by African Woman and Child Features Service through the Media Diversity Centre with the communities that inhabit the area surrounding Mau, it emerged that politics of Mau is beyond the political class. It is above Raila Odinga and his calls for evictions and those of William Ruto saying his community is being targeted.

In the media dialogue attended by Maasai and Ogiek male and female leaders, it came out clearly that the death of the Mau forest is affecting a whole generation of population as their sources of livelihood get depleted.

Those who are making noise about evictions from the forest do not live there. However, those who live in the forest and who have been responsible for its depletion are people from far who do not understand ways of the forest and how the environment can be sustainable maintained by those who live around it.

Logging has been going on at the Mau unabated and sources estimate that 14 tonnes of trees are removed from the forest by a company the locals claim is certified and protected by the political leadership.

Kantau Nkuruna, a local Community Forest Association leader in Narok County says residents of the Mau Forest borders will soon be forced to take law into their own hands if the Government persistently ignores to listen to them.

Narok has become a time bomb. When it rains the town gets flooded and many lives have been lost as there are no more trees to hold the running water as the surface has been left bare. Narok County has registered serious floods in the recent past resulting from heavy rains in the Mau Forest at times claiming lives besides displacing residents living in the plains of Narok town.

“We suffer most when floods come and we are frustrated by the Government that hardly does anything even when we report or arrest those involved in the destruction of the forest,” he complains.

Today, more than one quarter of the protected forest reserves have been settled and cleared tearing out the trees at the heart of the forest that has triggered a cascade of drought and despair in the surrounding valleys.

The forest is a major catchment area within the region. However, with the trees having been cut down, it is no longer serving its natural responsibility. The rivers that flow from the forest have dried up. And as the forest disappears day by day as a result of human activities, so too have Kenya's harvests, its cattle farms, hydro-electricity, tea industry, lakes and even the famous wildlife parks.

On the contrary, the tale revolving around the Mau Forest keeps on taking new directions with the politicians playing cat and mouse games to satisfy their own interests.

Much has been said but no one seems to care about the Ogiek woman whose livelihood depends entirely on the forest.

The Mau not only provided for her basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing, but it was also an important aspect of their social and spiritual life. To begin with, the forest was a source where they got herbs that were used as medicine. It was from here that they also got firewood that was used for cooking and even as a source for lighting at night as well making their houses warm at night.

Now, these women have been left with no option but to walk miles and miles in search of their basic needs, especially food.

Anne Naramat one of the Ogiek women cries the forest is gone. “There are roads all over the forest. The forest has turned into estates with people from all walks of life that one can hardly believe it is the same forest that used to be thick with all types of indigenous trees.”

Naramat says rains can no longer be predicted due to adverse climate change that has been caused by human activities in the forest and therefore water, that is a basic commodity, is hard to come by.

According to Naramat, the Government has failed in its responsibility to conserve the forest by allowing illegal settlements within the reserves.

“This Government has totally failed in protecting the forest and its people especially the Maasai woman whose life depends entirely on the forest,” she says.

Naramat who is the Narok South Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairlady says they live from hand to mouth as are unable to feed their families.

“As a result, many women have lost their lives due to these kinds of hardship,” she says.

According Lucy Sadera women have been left wallowing in abject poverty with all the responsibilities on their back since their men no longer stay home in the name of searching for pastures.

“As a result, these women have continued to bear the greatest brunt of the forest depletion with no one to come to their rescue,” she says.

Sadera foresees a struggle for water and land which could even escalate into a bloody civil conflict if the Government does not act. “And the implications go beyond the environment. This has the potential to create insecurity as people squabble over dwindling resources. For example, at the moment different families have divided their portions and do not allow others to fetch firewood as it used to be,” she observes.

However, she urges the Government to come up with clear and sustainable policies to conserve the forest before the situation gets out of hand completely.

In echoing Sadera sentiments, Eunice Marima, former Narok South Maendeleo ya Wanawake chairlady says worse still, the water from the Mau quenches thirst far beyond Kenya. Its rivers feed Tanzania’s Serengeti and keep the fishermen of Lake Victoria afloat.

“Considering that Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile, one begins to grasp the scale of the crisis the Kenyan government is facing,” says Marima.

She singles out Egypt as the major beneficiary of the Mau Forest adding it’s ironical that Kenya depends on rice from Egypt and yet it ought to be the major producer.

“We are looking at securing the livelihoods and economies of millions of women who directly and indirectly depend on the ecosystem. We must act now before the entire ecosystem is irreversibly damaged,” reiterates Marima.

However, she laments that it will take decades to restore the canopy years in which Kenyans will continue to suffer from land degradation and climate change.

Mau Forest is the largest in Kenya, the size of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya combined with 10 million people depending on its rivers. The forest feeds six lakes that include Victoria, Turkana, Natron, Nakuru, Baringo and Magadi.

Though the Government through Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources revised its policy on planting over 540 million trees by 2030, without extensive consultation with citizens and tangible charges against those who breach environmental laws, the dream of a healthy environment is still farfetched.

“If the responsibility of reclaiming the lost glory of Kenyan green lands is to be achieved then women have to be at the forefront in these particular efforts,” advises Marima.

Marima, who owns a mini forest in her farm, suggests that the Government should provide seedlings of trees they want to be planted by Kenyans instead of just giving orders on what should be done.

She reiterated that laws requiring every Kenyan to replant trees once they have felled any for whatever reason should be upheld and legal measures taken against anyone who breaches them.

Other recommendations given by the locals include an intensified fight against corruption that has seen forest guards and other policemen receive money to allow illegal loggers slip from justice as the country is hit with the impact of deforestation.

This story was originally published in the Reject Online Issue 44 - Download a copy and read more stories