Crisis looms as Embobut evictees camp along roads

By Fred Kibor

Elgeyo/Marakwet , Kenya: A humanitarian crisis looms in Embobut forest, Elgeyo/Marakwet County after the Government embarked on an eviction exercise to remove the squatters from the Cherangany water tower.

The squatters had their houses burned down by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) officers who have been combing the expansive forest since the 21-day notice to vacate elapsed last year. This has left the evictees without basic needs.

Women and children are living in makeshift shelters along the road leading to the forest under deplorable conditions while the men are sleeping under trees along the forest, saying they have nowhere to go.

However, the squatters blamed the Government for subjecting them to inhumane acts like what happened in 2009 when they were first evicted, saying they have not been compensated to facilitate their movement out of the forest.

After the eviction, the Government set up a task force with an aim of profiling the names of genuine forest squatters for compensation.

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta officially closed the holding camps within the forest and issued the 2,874 profiled squatters with Sh400,000 each to enable them move out of the forest.

But other families, mostly from the indigenous Sengwer community, claim they were left out of the compensation and vowed to camp at the forest until they are given alternative land.

When The Standard visited Sinen glade, one of the areas the squatters have been living in, smoke was billowing from the houses that had been set ablaze by the KFS officers and men could be seen trying to salvage belongings from the inferno.

Not compensated

For Mzee Anthony Chemengich, 73, an elder from Kapkomora clan whose family has been living in the forest all his life, removing them without compensation would be “a great injustice”.

“Our forefathers were buried in this forest and we do not know where to turn to,” said the old man who has been living with his son under a tree after their houses were razed.

His son, Benjamin Kemboi, said their children no longer go to school since the day the houses were torched.

“We also need money to enable us buy settlement land elsewhere like the rest of us that have been compensated,” he said.

Edwin Kiplagat is among those who got compensated but are yet to get alternative land to purchase and move to.

“We have been forced to move out of the forest or risk being arrested yet we were not given enough time to relocate our families,” he complained.

Kiplagat said they have been forced to take their families to relatives’ home as the men live in the forest guarding their belongings before ferrying them.

Local leaders led by the area MP David Kangogo have faulted the Government for burning houses and destroying property. “This is a primitive way of evicting people,” said the MP.

County Senator Kipchumba Murkomen said they have asked the Government to factor in the squatters left out in the compensation plan.

But area County Commissioner Arthur Osiya said the families must move out of the forest since it has been massively depleted.