Kenyan Riot Police Prevent Conservationists from Planting Trees
10/18/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Kenyan Riot Police Prevent Conservationists from Planting Trees
Source: Agence France-Presse
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 10/18/98
NAIROBI, Oct 18 (AFP) - Kenyan riot police have prevented MPs
and environmental activists from planting trees at Nairobi's Karura
forest, where developers plan to build a housing estate, newspapers
reported Sunday.
The security men, led by Gigiri police chief Peter Kiarie,
arrived at the forest early Saturday and cordoned off the area,
forcing Green Belt Movement coordinator Wangari Maathai, MPs Paul
Muite and Beth Mugo and several environmental activists to camp at
the gate for up to five hours.
Kiarie said he had strict orders not to allow anyone into the
forest.
The Green Belt Movement had brought 1,500 seedlings to the site
on Friday with the intention of planting them on Saturday.
The police move angered the environmentalists, who demanded to
know why police had been deployed to seal off the forest, which they
alleged had been grabbed by the developers.
Muite, who is also a lawyer, warned the police that he and his
backers would destroy any equipment and property the developers
bring to the forest, situated in Nairobi's northern suburbs.
Last week, a group of opposition politicians and activists led
by Maathai and Muite, and accompanied by a large crowd, stormed the
forest and razed property worth 80 million shillings (1.3 million
dollars) belonging to a contractor hired by the developers to build
a residential estate.
At one point, police threatened to use force if the crowd did
not disperse, but the protesters said they were prepared to die to
save the forest from developers.
Muite said the group would return to the site later and plant
their seedlings.
The politicians and conservation activists later decided to
plant a tree outside the gates of the headquarters of the UN office
in Nairobi, which houses the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the
International Centre in Agro-Forestry, facing the forest.
At the planting ceremony, Mugo wondered how the government could
destroy a forest next to the UNEP headquarters, and declared: "If I
were the UNEP, I would just pack up and go."
Sources said that the country's chief conservator of forests has
been placed on compulsory three-month leave over the issue.