DESTRUCTION OF MAU A TRAGEDY FOR KENYA AND AFRICA
Kanini Evans Kariuki
September 24, 2009
THE ongoing impassioned and divisive debate over the Mau complex is tragic testimony of the sorry state of a nation faced with an uncertain and bleak future.
The political dithering over the Mau scam and other fundamental policy guidelines on governance are only helping to hasten the writing of the closing lines of the epitaph on the tomb of the Kenyan nation.
The debate has veered off the course of a serious and national discourse on how to avert an environmental disaster of monumental proportions that is about to strike dead the country to more about retrogressive and negative ethnicity and our Machiavellian politics.
Even as the politicians flex their muscles over the emotive Mau forest issue, we should not lose sight of the fact that the forest encroachment in Kenya started more than 100 years ago.
Tracts of expansive land in Central Kenya and Rift valley, once virgin forests, have been dished out for political patronage and resettlement from the colonial times.
The late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi governments perfected it and it is for the government of today to reverse the trends.
The loss of the forest cover is largely to blame for the diminishing livelihoods of many Kenyans, thanks to reduced land productivity, famine and drought.
The current drought that caused the worst ever food shortage and widespread famine is being seen against the backdrop of the wanton destruction and abuse of our forests and environment in general.
That nature is hitting back pretty hard is no doubt.
A few years ago a prominent environmentalist warned that nature is very unforgiving and will hit back if abused.
Well, it is payback time for our sins against the environment!
Our rivers have dried up, our livestock are dying, hunger and famine are ravaging us and we are dying. We are indeed paying back big with our tears and blood!
The row over Mau complex pitying the honourable Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Rift Valley Members of parliament, led by Agriculture minister William Ruto over the eviction of the settlers and land grabbers, is shadowing the benefits of rehabilitating and conserving this crucial water tower that touches on the survival of millions not only in Kenya, but also in the region and beyond.
Besides being a key water tower, the Mau complex has other ecological benefits for the country and the region. It is a key micro-regulator and biodiversity zone; this is why the continued destruction of the Mau poses serious challenges to our own survival and that of the future generation.
While the government and the Rift Valley leadership which has now drawn in retired president Moi engage in endless and costly sparing over reclaiming the Mau from those encroaching on it, they are all agreed on one issue: the Mau most be saved for our own survival and posterity.
According to Ken Okong´o, the Executive chairman of Carewell Society and Symon Cheruiyot and David Busienei, co-founders of Shelter of Peace Initiative, an organization that is spearheading peace and reconciliation efforts in the Rift Valley following the post- election violence in 2007, the stalemate over the Mau complex saga is largely because of the failure by the past leadership to address itself to the real issues that have over the years affected the welfare of ordinary Kenyans.
They say it is unfortunate that the retired president is being seen as among those standing on the way in the resolution the Mau standoff.
"We all know that the excision of the Mau and other forest covers in the country did not start with the Moi regime. It started in the colonial era, the Kenyatta administration enhanced it, while the Moi regime perfected. But it is important that Moi should behave like an elder statesman and shun taking sides that diminish his national standing and legacy,´´ charges Busienei.
Okong´o whose organization deals with environmental issues and conservation, says Moi in his 24-year reign, taught Kenyans to love one another and be mindful of each other´s welfare and should therefore, be in the forefront in the efforts to conserve the Mau.
"He should not be part of the solution and the problem as he is being seen. He seems to have forgotten the very philosophy that he so earnestly preached.´´ He should preach peace and avoid getting embroiled in the murk that is the Mau,´´ Okongo adds.
According to Cheruiyot, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Simama Kenya initiative headed by President Kibaki´s son, Jimmy, the Mau is about the future of the country and the livelihoods of millions beyond the Kenyan borders.
The Simama Kenya Initiative is a noble organization whose major objective is to empower the youth in Kenya economically, and to extricate them from their predicament of acute unemployment and poverty.
The destruction of the environment especially the Mau complex has wider ramification of local and regional peace and stability and laments that the current stand and political posturing by the Rift Valley leaders led by Ruto is parochial and self serving.
"The beating of war drums by the Rift Valley MPs over the Mau is a display of political irresponsibly and lack of foresight….. it is parochial and defeatist to mislead people that they are fighting for their interests when they are in essence protecting their own interests", states Cheruiyot.
Their stand is isolating the Kalenjin community and antagonizing them with other Kenyan communities with whom they should co-exist in harmony,´´ he says, adding that, resource wars that emanate from abuse of the natural environment and resulting in water scarcity, have caused untold suffering amount communities especially in the northern part of Kenya.
Busienei says the ethno-centred approach to the Mau is hypocritical because it is common knowledge that the grabbers of the Mau are political bigwigs who have always enjoyed patronage from godfathers at the expense of the common man. Whatever our politicians do is all for their own selfish interests,´´ he adds.
"I feel devastated when I see MPs from Rift Valley inciting people not leave the Mau. I want to inform them that the Mau complex is a source of life. The effects of the abuse of the Mau are also being felt by the very people who they are asking to lay their lives down for them over Mau. They should let the people heal from the trauma of the 2007 post-poll violence instead of inciting them to disobedience and violence. History will judge them harshly. I appeal to Ruto to desist from incitement for the sake of the environment and peaceful co-existence in the region, says Cheruiyot.
The failure to save the Mau will have devastating effects on the country´s economy. Recent reports by the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) over the debilitating consequences of the never ending cat and mouse game over the conservation of Mau are quite telling.
It calls for fast and decisive action to salvage the country´s economy.
It says through the ecological services provided by its forest, the Mau complex is a valued natural asset that supports key economic sectors in Rift Valley and Western Kenya, including energy, tourism, agriculture (cash crops such as tea and rice; subsistence corps; and livestock) and water supply.
In a nutshell, the report says the Mau complex is the backbone of two of the three largest foreign currency earners – tea and tourism. It further says market value of goods and services generated annually in the tea, tourism and energy sectors alone to which the forest of the Mau complex have contributed, is in excess of Kshs. 20 billion.
This does not reflect provisional services such as water supply to urban areas or support to rural livelihoods, in particular in the Lake Victoria basin outside the tea growing areas.
If further adds that this figure also does not reflect potential economic development in the catchments of the Mau complex, particularly in the energy sector.
The UNEP report sums up by saying that environmental stability and secured provision of ecological goods and services are crucial to attaining sustainable development in the country, and it is therefore important that concerted efforts should be made to secure and rehabilitate the Mau.
This is essential to the cross cutting, underlying requirements to achieving the recently launched vision 2030 – Kenya´s development blueprint aimed at making the country a newly industrializing middle income nation, providing high quality of life for all the citizens.
Other reports say because of massive destruction in the Mau forest, Lake Nakuru it is feared may be extinct in another eight years unless the current destruction is contained.
The after effects of the destruction have led to the lake receding. Other lakes affected are Baringo, Bogoria, Natron and Turkana.
According to Kenya Wildlife Service Director Julius Kipng´etich, the impact on the encroachment of human settlement has affected the rivers which had been draining into the lake, with some drying up or becoming seasonal.
River Njoro´s water volume has gone down by more than 75 percent, while the Mara River is only one-twelfth of its original volume.
He points out that without the rivers, the algae plant will no longer find its way into Lake Nakuru and the famous flamingo birds will no longer survive because they feed on the plant.
The director said the impact would affect the lake Nakuru National park which is a leading tourist attraction.
He also says the spectacular wildebeest migration which is the Eight Wonder of the world was under threat because of the receding water of the Mara River whose source is in the Mau complex.
It is therefore reassuring that President Mwai Kibaki´s and Raila´s stand in calling for immediate eviction of the Mau settlers should not be politicized.
It is heartening that the President has extended his firm backing to Raila on the eviction of the Mau squatters.
It is unfortunate that the Rift Valley politicians are targeting Raila for a government stand on an issue that is clearly of national nature.
The chest thumping by senior leaders from Rift Valley that their people cannot be intimidated, pushed or shoved around was misplaced and wanting. It is indeed deceitful and tribally-based!
Their reaction to vows by the Environment Minister John Michuki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to conserve Mau "at all costs even if it means losing politically,´´ failed to address the underlying dire issue of conservation.
To show how critical and alarming the Mau issue is to the survival of the nation, a report by the World Rainforest Movement, sums up that though Kenya´s forest cover has been disseminated by wanton destruction, it is the Mau complex which has suffered most and has alarmingly reduced over time.
The complex, the country´s largest forest cover, which is estimated at 400,000 hectares, is one of the five main water towers of Kenya . It comprises South West Mau, East Mau, Trans Mara, Mau Narok, Maasai Mau, Western Mau and Southern Mau.
The encroachment of this crucial water tower has seen over 46,000 hectares excised, and converted to farmlands and settlement in the last decade.
According to the reports which highlight the threat posed to Mau, the impact of massive deforestation caused by farming, charcoal burning, logging of indigenous tree species and large-scale farming has tremendously affected the water resources and drying of rivers.
The time to save Mau is now and not tomorrow. We are fast running out of options and time. The Mau is a ticking time bomb just about to explode.
To avert the gathering storm of that disaster, our leaders have to embrace sobriety and courage to do what is right for our future.
The political dithering over the Mau scam and other fundamental policy guidelines on governance are only helping to hasten the writing of the closing lines of the epitaph on the tomb of the Kenyan nation.
The debate has veered off the course of a serious and national discourse on how to avert an environmental disaster of monumental proportions that is about to strike dead the country to more about retrogressive and negative ethnicity and our Machiavellian politics.
Even as the politicians flex their muscles over the emotive Mau forest issue, we should not lose sight of the fact that the forest encroachment in Kenya started more than 100 years ago.
Tracts of expansive land in Central Kenya and Rift valley, once virgin forests, have been dished out for political patronage and resettlement from the colonial times.
The late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi governments perfected it and it is for the government of today to reverse the trends.
The loss of the forest cover is largely to blame for the diminishing livelihoods of many Kenyans, thanks to reduced land productivity, famine and drought.
The current drought that caused the worst ever food shortage and widespread famine is being seen against the backdrop of the wanton destruction and abuse of our forests and environment in general.
That nature is hitting back pretty hard is no doubt.
A few years ago a prominent environmentalist warned that nature is very unforgiving and will hit back if abused.
Well, it is payback time for our sins against the environment!
Our rivers have dried up, our livestock are dying, hunger and famine are ravaging us and we are dying. We are indeed paying back big with our tears and blood!
The row over Mau complex pitying the honourable Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Rift Valley Members of parliament, led by Agriculture minister William Ruto over the eviction of the settlers and land grabbers, is shadowing the benefits of rehabilitating and conserving this crucial water tower that touches on the survival of millions not only in Kenya, but also in the region and beyond.
Besides being a key water tower, the Mau complex has other ecological benefits for the country and the region. It is a key micro-regulator and biodiversity zone; this is why the continued destruction of the Mau poses serious challenges to our own survival and that of the future generation.
While the government and the Rift Valley leadership which has now drawn in retired president Moi engage in endless and costly sparing over reclaiming the Mau from those encroaching on it, they are all agreed on one issue: the Mau most be saved for our own survival and posterity.
According to Ken Okong´o, the Executive chairman of Carewell Society and Symon Cheruiyot and David Busienei, co-founders of Shelter of Peace Initiative, an organization that is spearheading peace and reconciliation efforts in the Rift Valley following the post- election violence in 2007, the stalemate over the Mau complex saga is largely because of the failure by the past leadership to address itself to the real issues that have over the years affected the welfare of ordinary Kenyans.
They say it is unfortunate that the retired president is being seen as among those standing on the way in the resolution the Mau standoff.
"We all know that the excision of the Mau and other forest covers in the country did not start with the Moi regime. It started in the colonial era, the Kenyatta administration enhanced it, while the Moi regime perfected. But it is important that Moi should behave like an elder statesman and shun taking sides that diminish his national standing and legacy,´´ charges Busienei.
Okong´o whose organization deals with environmental issues and conservation, says Moi in his 24-year reign, taught Kenyans to love one another and be mindful of each other´s welfare and should therefore, be in the forefront in the efforts to conserve the Mau.
"He should not be part of the solution and the problem as he is being seen. He seems to have forgotten the very philosophy that he so earnestly preached.´´ He should preach peace and avoid getting embroiled in the murk that is the Mau,´´ Okongo adds.
According to Cheruiyot, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Simama Kenya initiative headed by President Kibaki´s son, Jimmy, the Mau is about the future of the country and the livelihoods of millions beyond the Kenyan borders.
The Simama Kenya Initiative is a noble organization whose major objective is to empower the youth in Kenya economically, and to extricate them from their predicament of acute unemployment and poverty.
The destruction of the environment especially the Mau complex has wider ramification of local and regional peace and stability and laments that the current stand and political posturing by the Rift Valley leaders led by Ruto is parochial and self serving.
"The beating of war drums by the Rift Valley MPs over the Mau is a display of political irresponsibly and lack of foresight….. it is parochial and defeatist to mislead people that they are fighting for their interests when they are in essence protecting their own interests", states Cheruiyot.
Their stand is isolating the Kalenjin community and antagonizing them with other Kenyan communities with whom they should co-exist in harmony,´´ he says, adding that, resource wars that emanate from abuse of the natural environment and resulting in water scarcity, have caused untold suffering amount communities especially in the northern part of Kenya.
Busienei says the ethno-centred approach to the Mau is hypocritical because it is common knowledge that the grabbers of the Mau are political bigwigs who have always enjoyed patronage from godfathers at the expense of the common man. Whatever our politicians do is all for their own selfish interests,´´ he adds.
"I feel devastated when I see MPs from Rift Valley inciting people not leave the Mau. I want to inform them that the Mau complex is a source of life. The effects of the abuse of the Mau are also being felt by the very people who they are asking to lay their lives down for them over Mau. They should let the people heal from the trauma of the 2007 post-poll violence instead of inciting them to disobedience and violence. History will judge them harshly. I appeal to Ruto to desist from incitement for the sake of the environment and peaceful co-existence in the region, says Cheruiyot.
The failure to save the Mau will have devastating effects on the country´s economy. Recent reports by the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) over the debilitating consequences of the never ending cat and mouse game over the conservation of Mau are quite telling.
It calls for fast and decisive action to salvage the country´s economy.
It says through the ecological services provided by its forest, the Mau complex is a valued natural asset that supports key economic sectors in Rift Valley and Western Kenya, including energy, tourism, agriculture (cash crops such as tea and rice; subsistence corps; and livestock) and water supply.
In a nutshell, the report says the Mau complex is the backbone of two of the three largest foreign currency earners – tea and tourism. It further says market value of goods and services generated annually in the tea, tourism and energy sectors alone to which the forest of the Mau complex have contributed, is in excess of Kshs. 20 billion.
This does not reflect provisional services such as water supply to urban areas or support to rural livelihoods, in particular in the Lake Victoria basin outside the tea growing areas.
If further adds that this figure also does not reflect potential economic development in the catchments of the Mau complex, particularly in the energy sector.
The UNEP report sums up by saying that environmental stability and secured provision of ecological goods and services are crucial to attaining sustainable development in the country, and it is therefore important that concerted efforts should be made to secure and rehabilitate the Mau.
This is essential to the cross cutting, underlying requirements to achieving the recently launched vision 2030 – Kenya´s development blueprint aimed at making the country a newly industrializing middle income nation, providing high quality of life for all the citizens.
Other reports say because of massive destruction in the Mau forest, Lake Nakuru it is feared may be extinct in another eight years unless the current destruction is contained.
The after effects of the destruction have led to the lake receding. Other lakes affected are Baringo, Bogoria, Natron and Turkana.
According to Kenya Wildlife Service Director Julius Kipng´etich, the impact on the encroachment of human settlement has affected the rivers which had been draining into the lake, with some drying up or becoming seasonal.
River Njoro´s water volume has gone down by more than 75 percent, while the Mara River is only one-twelfth of its original volume.
He points out that without the rivers, the algae plant will no longer find its way into Lake Nakuru and the famous flamingo birds will no longer survive because they feed on the plant.
The director said the impact would affect the lake Nakuru National park which is a leading tourist attraction.
He also says the spectacular wildebeest migration which is the Eight Wonder of the world was under threat because of the receding water of the Mara River whose source is in the Mau complex.
It is therefore reassuring that President Mwai Kibaki´s and Raila´s stand in calling for immediate eviction of the Mau settlers should not be politicized.
It is heartening that the President has extended his firm backing to Raila on the eviction of the Mau squatters.
It is unfortunate that the Rift Valley politicians are targeting Raila for a government stand on an issue that is clearly of national nature.
The chest thumping by senior leaders from Rift Valley that their people cannot be intimidated, pushed or shoved around was misplaced and wanting. It is indeed deceitful and tribally-based!
Their reaction to vows by the Environment Minister John Michuki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to conserve Mau "at all costs even if it means losing politically,´´ failed to address the underlying dire issue of conservation.
To show how critical and alarming the Mau issue is to the survival of the nation, a report by the World Rainforest Movement, sums up that though Kenya´s forest cover has been disseminated by wanton destruction, it is the Mau complex which has suffered most and has alarmingly reduced over time.
The complex, the country´s largest forest cover, which is estimated at 400,000 hectares, is one of the five main water towers of Kenya . It comprises South West Mau, East Mau, Trans Mara, Mau Narok, Maasai Mau, Western Mau and Southern Mau.
The encroachment of this crucial water tower has seen over 46,000 hectares excised, and converted to farmlands and settlement in the last decade.
According to the reports which highlight the threat posed to Mau, the impact of massive deforestation caused by farming, charcoal burning, logging of indigenous tree species and large-scale farming has tremendously affected the water resources and drying of rivers.
The time to save Mau is now and not tomorrow. We are fast running out of options and time. The Mau is a ticking time bomb just about to explode.
To avert the gathering storm of that disaster, our leaders have to embrace sobriety and courage to do what is right for our future.
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