Evicted Mau forest settlers lose harvest as rangers set fire to houses
By NATION Correspondents
Posted Monday, January 25 2010 at 20:00 Kenya Forestry Service guards burnt 10 houses belonging to settlers evicted from Mau after they went back to the forest to harvest their maize. One of the houses was full of maize when the guards struck on Saturday evening. The families, which had been camping at Chematich, had gone back to the forest to harvest the grain. The family that suffered the heaviest losses had stored the maize in a house which they had deserted in last October’s evictions. Many of the houses were intact as most of their owners left the forest voluntarily. The guards swung into action after the settlers returned to Kipkisor, four kilometres into the forest, and started harvesting the crop. Area chief John Mutai said the guards panicked on seeing the settlers pitching tents in the forest. He said the settlers had gone back to Kipkisor village in Ndoinet Forest, one of the 22 blocks of the Mau Forest Complex. The more than 14,000 families ejected from south-western Mau have been living in nine camps within Kuresoi District. Efforts to take them back to their home districts hit a snag after they refused to board government lorries.
