Mount Kenya Forest under Siege from PastoralistsNairobi, Kenya (PANA) (Panafrican News Agency, June 12, 2000) - Pressed by the worst drought Kenya has witnessed in 40 years, Maasai herdsmen pressed by severe drought have driven thousands of their cattle into a section of Mt. Kenya Forest.
The forest, which provides vegetation cover for the foot of the mountain and serves as a catchment area for central Kenya, is the latest area to be invaded by the cattle herders in a desperate search for pasture and water.
The pastoralists' earlier sojourn on the neighbouring ranches had caused uproar, with some observers mistaking their act as part of a wider conspiracy by the locals to invade farms the way former Zimbabwean war veterans are currently doing on white-owned farms.
The invasion of the forest has generated a lot of conflict between the herdsmen and the farming community who live around this mountain area.
While the cattlemen claim they are solely interested in pasture and clean water for their herds, the farmers complain the marauding cattle are destroying their crops.
Some of the cattle herders are also demanding to be allowed to cultivate the forest.
Last week, the herdsmen entered the Ontulili southern section of the forest in Meru Central District prompting protests from leaders and peasants whose crops had been ruined in the process.
Meru's district commissioner, William Kerario, complained the District Security Committee was not consulted in advance to allow the herdsmen moved into the forest.
He criticised the decision to move the herdsmen from Mukogodo area from ranches in Laikipia, 156 miles northwest of Nairobi to forest.
At a meeting 3 June, involving the herdsmen, leaders, administrators and the ranch owners, the cattle keepers were persuaded to vacate the area.
They were authorised to move their animals into the Mt. Kenya and Aberdares forests in Meru and Nyeri districts, respectively.
During that meeting, the government was urged to allow peasants in surrounding areas to also cultivate in the expansive forest now that herders have been given permission to move there.
Chris Murungaru, a legislator, said the farming community should also be allowed to grow crops in the fertile forest so as to prevent the destruction of their crops by livestock moving into the area.
"If the Maasai herdsmen are allowed into the forest, we also demand to be allowed into the fertile forest to grow crops," James Muthamia, a distraught Laikipia farmer, said.
"We want fairness here because allowing only the herdsmen into this forest will mean that our crops, which stand on the way to their grazing grounds, will be destroyed," he added. "All we demand here is fairness, otherwise we too will also invade the forest."
But as the herdsmen were preparing their stock for another long walk to the forest region, Narok Democratic Party chairman, Robert Ole Rotiken, cautioned the Maasai community against taking their animals to Mt. Kenya Forest.
He said those urging the herdsmen to do so wanted to cause a conflict between the pastoralists and farming communities who live around the mountain.
The Meru, the Kikuyu and Embu ethnic groups live around the southern and western sides of the mountain.
However, Kenya's Environment and Natural Resources Minister, Francis Nyenze, said the government would not allow the forest to be allocated to any individual, either for cultivation or for ranching purposes.
He maintained that the forest would remain intact and that the herdsmen were only being allowed into chosen patches of the forest.
"My office does not condone deforestation. We shall not allow the forest to be excised," the minister said, adding that the forest would be left intact so that its biological diversity could be preserved.
Mt. Kenya is the country's highest mountain harbouring a natural rain forest covering several river sources, including River Tana, Kenya's main hydroelectric power source.
The vice-chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Prof. Ratemo Michieka, said the herdsmen should be removed to avert an ecological disaster in the important natural forest.
The director of Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Cyrus Nderitu, said the current drought posed a major challenge to scientists.
While sympathising with the pastoralists, Michieka said that their being allowed to graze at the Ontulili and other sections of Mt. Kenya forest would have long-term negative effects on not only the mountain's flora and fauna but the country's ecology in general.
"Why are these people being allowed to graze there? Are we taking into consideration the impact their presence will have on the environment and our own survival?" he queried.
Michiekas pointed out that most of the problems being experienced in Kenya today, including the current drought and harsh and unpredictable environmental conditions, are largely due to human error.
He observed that runaway deforestation and soil degradation at catchment areas were reducing the country into a desert resulting into the current environmental woes.
"I know what it takes to make a forest and I know what it takes to make a desert. I also know what it means to conserve the environment and we are not doing this," he said.
"As we speak, the Sahara desert is gaining ground at the rate of three kilometres per every tree we cut and if we are not careful, it (Sahara) will catch up with us," he warned.
Nonetheless, he affirmed that the current drought was to a large degree generated by irresponsible human activities.