Elgeyo Marakwet County seeks to avert recurrent landslides

By Fred Kibor and Titus Too

Elgeyo Marakwet, Kenya: Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos has cautioned residents against cultivating along Kerio Escarpment to prevent frequent landslides in the area.

The governor also issued a notice to the residents who have settled along the escarpment to vacate the area.

“There is wanton destruction of the environment through cultivation and charcoal burning and the area is no longer safe for human settlement,” warned the governor.

He said residents were ploughing up step areas, something he said may trigger landslides during the rainy season.

“In the past four years, we have lost close to forty people as a result of landslides, but it seems residents have not learnt from the catastrophes,” said Tolgos.

He said his government was drafting a Bill that would criminalise any human activity that may interfere with the natural environment around the escarpment.

Homes destroyed

“We will soon table a Bill in the county assembly to put a stop to the deaths we witness every year when rains pound,” he said when he toured Kocholwo in Keiyo South Sub-county.

In December 2012, six people perished after a downpour triggered a landslide that swept away homes in Kocholwo.

Tolgos explained the colonial government through the then Elgeyo Marakwet District Agriculture Officer William Spencer had identified areas that were prohibited for human settlement and cultivation.

“There was a line that came to be famously called the Spencer line that locals wishing to set up home or any do form of cultivation were not allowed to cross. We want to restore this Spencer line as a way of averting landslides as well as make the escarpment a tourism area,” he said.

The governor noted that committees would be formed in affected sub-locations to spearhead relocation of families living in areas prone to landslides.

“I want to assure them that the exercise will be humane as it will entail moving them from their ancestral land,” he said.

Tolgos said the relocation will pave for restoration of the escarpments, which will include planting of trees.

The governor asked locals who will be relocated to embrace farming activities that do not interfere with the structure of the soil such as bee keeping and livestock rearing.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Board in collaboration with Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) has stepped up efforts to eradicate the outdated practice across the country.

The board’s Chairperson Linah Kilimo said despite FGM having been outlawed, some communities were still practising it.

Anti-FGM drive

Kilimo said her board has teamed up with specialised units from the DPP’s office to sensitise Kenyans on the negative effects of FGM.

The specialised units are also charged with prosecution of offenders.

The former Marakwet East MP appealed to clerics and community leaders to partner with the board in the campaign against female circumcision, which she said is a threat to the future of the girl child. 

“Girls should be accorded the constitutional right to education. Communities should discard FGM which is to blame for early marriages and high school dropout rates among girls,” said Kilimo.