WEDNESDAY, 08 JUNE 2011 00:20 BY KIPLANG’AT KIRUI
Residents of Narok have accused senior government officials of continued destruction of Mau Forest. They also accused the Kenya Police, Administration Police and Kenya Wildlife Service officers of escorting lorries ferrying timber and charcoal from the forest. One of the residents Philip Lemein said ministers and other politicians including MPs were sending their emissaries to destroy the forest.
Speaking in a one-day workshop on media encounter on the Mau Forest and environment, organized by African Woman and Child Features Services held in Narok town, Lemein appealed to the government to involve the community by forming a committee comprising of elders and women to oversee the conservation of Mau and other forests in Narok.
Narok County Council vice chair Agnes Pareiyo said leaders should stop pointing accusing fingers at each other and but instead call for concerted efforts to educate wananchi on the importance of conserving the environment.
She said the county funded the demarcation of boundaries of Mau Forest. She however took issue with senior unnamed politicians of going against the grain by further extending the boundaries to create more land for individuals especially in Enoosupukia in Mau Division.
Another resident, Eunice Marima, attributed the rampant destruction of Mau to bad governance experienced during President Moi's regime. Marima said that the government through allowing the destruction of Mau was bringing poverty to Maasai land and affecting common mwananchi.
An official from African Woman and Child Features Services, Jane Godia, called on the government to honour its pledge on the conservation of one of the biggest forest in the country by first evicting the illegal settlers.
Source: http://www.the-star.co.ke
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