Cold nights and pain as Ogiek families are ejected from forests

Emily Sitienei, gathers salvaged property from her burning house in Cheminden, Sabor forest. [Fred Kibor, Standard]

Emily Sitienei gathers her belongings scattered in the compound as smoke billows from her neighbours' grass-thatched house.

She breaks into tears as she ponders her next move after the place she had called home all her life is reduced to a heap of ashes.

Food, bedding, and kitchenware are strewn all over the grounds of Cheminden village at Sabor forest in Elgeyo Marakwet County.

Children too young to comprehend the sad turn of affairs are carried on their mothers’ backs. Some are crying, perhaps startled by the sudden change of environment.

“We are a suffering a lot. Our property was burnt and what we managed to salvage has been soaked and destroyed by the rains. Our houses were gutted by Government officials and we don't know where to go,” she said.

Sitienei is among 14 families, members of the Ogiek community, whose houses were burnt down by Kenya Forest Service (KFS) rangers during the weekend in a bid to flush them out of the forest.

She said their livelihoods would be disrupted and that they would be subjected to suffering, just like those who were ejected from the Mau forest complex almost a decade ago.

One of the houses destroyed by Kenya Forest Service rangers. [Fred Kibor, Standard]

Abject poverty

“Many people have been removed from the forests and are languishing in abject poverty, camping in makeshift camps along roads and in trading centres. We are entitled to constitutional rights just like other Kenyans, and our well-being should be catered for before we are ordered out of the forests,” she protested.

Peninah Kemei, another victim, said her family would stay in the forest as they had nowhere else to go.

“We are being asked to move out of the forest but where to? This forest is where we have known as home for centuries and for the Government to eject us is akin to making us refugees in our own ancestral land,” she said.

Several deadlines ordering the families to move out of the forest have lapsed.

Mzee Daniel Kimalel, a representative of the community, said the community's forefathers were buried in the forest and that they have been occupying the place since the precolonial times.

The local KFS ecosystem conservator, Anthony Musyoka, accused the people of encroaching on the forest and disregarding orders to move out.

“So far we are handling the issue in a humane manner and engaging the community to seek alternative livelihoods,” said Mr Musyoka.