Ndorobo, Ogiek forest evictees storm county offices

By RAEL JELIMO

Nandi, KENYA:  Over 1000 Ogiek and Ndorobo forest evictees have stormed the governors’ office in Nandi County over purported sidelining by the government.

The IDP’s, who were evicted from a stretch of forest in the Nandi Hills and Tindiret constituencies, currently reside along the roadside near Serengonik and Cherobon forests in Nandi in temporary shelters.

The evictees, who walked over 100 km from their temporary habitat to the governors’ office, accuse the national government of sabotaging their resettlement.

 They said the conditions given by the Department of Special Programmes seeking to resettle a only heads of the extended family, leaving the rest out, is unfair.

The Nandi County government termed the evictees’ plight  as an ‘inherited problem’, saying the issue of the Ogiek-Ndorobo resettlement was being handled by the Directorate of Special Programmes.

“I have been in talks with Joseph Macharia, an official in the Special Programmes Department, who had previously vetted the forest evictees in Nandi. He informed me that the issue of their resettlement was being discussed at a ‘high level’ by the National Government,” says Consolata Kuto, the Nandi County executive member for Devolved Units and Special Programmes.

The evictees further accused the Jubilee Government of sidelining them, adding that it has reneged on the  100-day pledge to resettle all IDP’s in the county.

100 days

“The 100 days are over. We are still on the roads and exposed to the elements. The Jubilee Government has completely forgotten us. How long will we wait for the ‘Canaan’ they promised?” posed Nandi Forest Evictees’ representative Paul Koech.

They further accused political leaders and State officials of seeking to benefit from their resettlement.

They told of the existence of several lists of real and fake forest evictees, which had further complicated the resettlement. Addressing the evictees, Nandi Governor Cleophas Lagat condemned corruption that has marred the resettlement process. “We will conduct further vetting to ascertain genuine evictees,” he said.