Destroying Kayas breeds hunger and poverty

By Antony Gitonga

The chirping birds and croaking frogs are a good break from the monotonous hooting and shouting in nearby towns.

The huge trees that give the forest a dense and dark look rise to the sky. And the monkeys skipping from tree to tree make the whole scene bewitching.

As we make our way through the forest, the wet leaves on the forest’s floor give the much-needed chill.

Once at the heart of the forest, the natural sounds suddenly disappear and are replaced by the echoes of men and women reverberating across the vast Kaya.

Metals hit tree trunks and coral blocks as half naked men, sweat dripping from their open chests, dig deeper for more white coral stones.

This action leaves behind huge, gaping holes in Kaya Waha.

The script is the same in Kaya Muhaka, only the players are different. Here men use shovels to scoop the top layer soil into a waiting truck.

Ready market

Again, the section of the forest is left bare. The soil has ready market – for landscaping new hotels along the Indian Ocean beaches.

In Kaya Ukunda, loggers and charcoal burners are having a field day bringing down rare indigenous trees.

This is the situation facing over 60 kayas, of which 38 are gazetted in the coastal region.

Various stakeholders, including kaya elders, have raised the red flag.

With rising cases of poverty and fast development in the region, unemployed youths have placed the forests in their radar.

Unscrupulous traders, mainly from upcountry, have grabbed parts of the kayas and already, permanent structures are coming up.

In Kaya Waha, workers in tattered clothes say this is the only way of earning a living.

Hussein Sudi, 40, says he harvests 60 coral blocks which he sells for Sh15 per block on a good day.

"I don’t know whose land this is but I found my colleagues harvesting the blocks and I joined them as I do not have any other source of livelihood," says Sudi.

He says harvesting corals and sand has been going on in the kayas for ages and even their grandfathers were involved and does not see any harm in the trade.

World Wide Fund for nature country director Mohamed Awer says the current resources in the coastal region are under threat as more people migrate to the area.

"The demand for coral blocks and top soil is on the increase as more hotels and buildings are coming up and all eyes are now trained on the Kayas," he says.

Awer’s organisation and the government are working on ways to halt the destruction of the Makaya, or Kayas.

"We are pre-occupied by tourism at the expense of our environment and the damage in North Coast is huge," he notes.

He warns that the destruction of the makaya could in the future lead to food shortage and increase poverty levels.

"It’s sad to note that hoteliers are paying the farmers peanuts to scoop the top soil for gardening in their hotels leaving them poorer having destroyed their land,"

According to 79-year-old Mzee Abdallah Ali Mnyenze who is also the chairman of all 38 kayas in Kwale County, the spiritual grounds are facing major threats from all sides – logging, charcoal burning, sand and coral harvesting and mineral exploration.

"We have used the makaya to interact with our ancestors but some people are looking at them as a quick way of making money," says Mnyenze.

A disturbed Mnyenze points out to Kaya Mrima in Msambweni constituency where some investors are on the ground ready to bring down the hundreds of trees in search of niobium mineral, which is used in welding, nuclear industries, electronics and optics jewellery.

Title deeds for kayas

Mnyenze says the best way to stop the forest destruction is to have titles for every kaya and if possible, fence them.

Hamisi Mdudu of the National Museums of Kenya in Kwale County says that although it is taboo to cut a tree in the kaya, young people have ignored this as they are not attached to the cultural beliefs or the forests.

"The Mijikenda use the forest to talk with the spirits of ancestors over disputes and rain, among other issues, but the young people have disregarded this," says Mdudu.

Mdudu says the community is already feeling the pinch of forest degradation.

A ‘man made dam’ in Mwambungo which came into existence due to sand harvesting has made the area no longer arable.

The Buda forest officer, Vitalis Osodo, says it’s hard to quantify the damage done on the makaya but points out that it is great.

"There is lack of awareness among the locals on the repercussions. We have launched a campaign to rehabilitate the degraded areas," says Osodo.

Rare and threatened species in the sacred forests

Kaya means homestead among the Mijikenda ethnic group along the coastal strip of the Kenyan Coast.

The kayas are of great importance to the Mijikenda community because of the spiritual attachment to them.

According to the National Museums of Kenya, there are 60 kayas and sacred grooves spread along the Kenyan Coast and 38 of them have been gazetted.

Because of their high biodiversity value, the forests hold many rare plant species while other trees have medicinal values.

According to Elias Kimaru, World Wide Fund coordinator Kwale County, there are hundreds of birds, wild pigs and various types of baboons in the kayas.

And in order to conserve them, the organisation has a large indigenous tree nursery with 210 different threatened and rare tree species.

"We supply the species to the National Museums for rehabilitation of the kayas."

Kimaru says 41 per cent of trees in the kayas are rare adding that there is need to make the forests economically viable for the continued appreciation of the present and future generations.

"A pilot study on eco-tourism in Kaya Kinondo has proved highly feasible and a community based approach is likely to yield satisfactory result."

Efforts to rescue the forests have led to the formation of a community bank, Kaya Kinondo FSA, which has helped locals save money and get loans to invest.

Bank accounts

According to the bank manager Zainabu Ahmed Salim, many people who were targeting the forests have been advanced some money and are involved in small scale businesses.

"A study done in this area in 2002 established that 85 per cent of the locals did not have bank accounts, which means there was no saving culture here," says Zainabu.

With savings now reaching close to Sh10 million, locals have been accessing loans whose beneficiaries include motorcycle operators, shops, barbers, shoeshines and beekeepers.

Zainabu says this has reduced the number of targeting the forests to earn a living.

"The excuse that poverty and lack of jobs made them turn to the forest is no longer tenable. We have given them a chance to earn their livelihood legally."