THE PLUNDER OF KENYA’S FORESTS
cultivation and forest fires all increasing.5 A report published by the Kenya Forest Service in 2007 suggested that this is the result of forest guards from the Ministry of Forestry being under-resourced, and therefore unable to manage the forests effectively, or due to ‘abuse of office, dereliction of duty and/or corruption’.6 Weak governance has made it difficult to address deforestation in terms of the irregular issuance of logging licences, bribery to forgo arrests or prosecution following forestry offences, and the illegal parcelling out of land by officials to repay or gain political favours.7 The nub of the forestry problem in Kenya, precipitated by the allocation of land, is the tension between the necessity to conserve the forests and, at the same time, the need to ensure that settlers on the land are treated fairly and equitably. Among the human factors driving the destruction of the forests are poverty, unsustainable livelihoods, a lack of land and population pressure on the areas surrounding the forest reserves. Successive governments have carved out the forests in an attempt to accommodate communities living near wooded areas, but this has been accompanied by the illegitimate allocation of land.8 The government set up a Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal/Irregular Allocation of Land in Kenya, and in 2004 it produced a report.9 The chair of the commission, Paul Ndung’u, suggested that the grabbing of the Mau Forest had begun as a genuine effort to
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settle landless members of the Ogiek community, but that in the process of allocating land for these settlements ‘corruption crept in’.10 For instance, instead of carving out the agreed 2000ha to allocate to the Ogiek community, public officials took around 10,000ha and allocated the extra land to ‘themselves and other influential individuals in government’.11 It is clear that the mass depletion of forests in Kenya could herald an environmental catastrophe for a country dealing with the effects of climate change. What is not so clear is how to conserve the forest, prevent illegal logging, resettle the people and ensure that this process is not also marred by corruption. The resettlement of vulnerable communities, who consider their land to be their own, is of particular concern given that, between 2004 and 2006, it is estimated that more than 100,000 people were forcibly evicted from their homes in forested areas in Kenya.12 The lack of trust was further heightened in August 2009 when the Kenya Forestry Service issued a 14-day eviction notice on people living in the Mau Forest,13 which was subsequently overturned by the prime minister, Raila Odinga, after only a few days.14 Debate on the resettlement of the Mau Forest inhabitants has been affected by political and tribal undertones, but Rift Valley leaders have stuck to their guns, demanding that their constituents should not be evicted without adequate
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