By KIPCHUMBA KIMEI
National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has raised alarm over return of families that were evicted from Enoosupukia Forest in 1992.The families were forcefully removed after they were involved in deforestation.
Kennedy Ondimu, the Authority’s director of Environmental Planning and Research co-ordination, warned that if the Government allowed the evictees to go back and politicians to settle their supporters in the controversial forest, it would be a blow to environmental conservation prospects. Already, he noted, the Sh261 million initiative by the Clinton Foundation and that contracted the Green Belt Movement to rehabilitate the forest have been dealt a blow by the return.
“The happening is bad for conservation prospects. It will be an environmental hazard if the evictees are allowed to go back and other interested parties allocated land in Enoosupukia,” said Dr Ondimu.
In 1992, about 300 families that were practising farming in the area were kicked out after the defunct Narok County Council declared the forest a trust land under its jurisdiction. However, efforts to rehabilitate and conserve the forest have been frustrated by politicians who want to settle their supporters there. Speaking during a consultative meeting at a Narok hotel on Enhanced Regulatory and Information Systems for Implementation of Multilateral Environment Agreements, Ondimo decried the wanton destruction of forests and water towers in Narok County and asked relevant authorities to stop the thriving charcoal trade in the region.
“Narok is the leading producer of charcoal in the country. The development is responsible for environmental degradation. If this is not stopped, people in the region and adjacent counties will suffer great consequences among them recurrent crop failures due to lack of rains,” he said.
He said that Nema has donated money to various community-based organisations in Narok.
