MARASHONI, KENYA - With the stroke of a pen, the last of Kenya's honey hunters may soon be homeless.
Since time immemorial, the Ogiek have been Kenya's traditional forest dwellers. They have stalked antelope with homemade bows, made medicine from leaves and trapped bees to produce honey. They have struggled to survive the press of modernity, and many times have been persecuted and driven from their forest. Somehow, they have always managed to survive.
Now, though, the little-known Ogiek, among East Africa's last bona fide hunters and gatherers, face their gravest test yet. The Kenyan government is gearing up to evict tens of thousands of settlers from the Mau Forest, the Ogiek's ancestral home and a critical water source for the entire country. The question: Will the few thousand remaining Ogiek be given a reprieve or given the boot?
No doubt the Mau Forest is crucial. It is -- or more accurately, used to be -- a thick forest in western Kenya, capturing the rains and the mist and, in turn, feeding more than a dozen lakes and rivers across the region.
But in the past 15 years, because of ill-planned settlement schemes, 25 percent of the trees have been wiped out. Much of the forest is now simply meadow. The Ogiek say there are fewer antelope and bees. Scientists say the environmental destruction has led to flash floods, micro-climate change, soil erosion and dried-up lakes.
The results were painfully obvious this summer when East Africa was hit by drought. In Nairobi, Kenya's capital, the water taps went dry for weeks. And because Kenya gets a lot of electricity from hydropower, the water shortage meant blackouts, which many believe contributed to a spike in crime.
Suddenly, the Kenyan government seemed to spring into action, insisting on ejecting all settlers from the Mau Forest so that the government could plant millions of trees and get the country's water sources churning again. But the sudden concern has bred suspicion as well. Many Ogiek wonder if Kenyan politicians, notorious for corruption, are driven by another kind of green.
"The government wants that forest for economic reasons, not conservation reasons," said Towett Kimaiyo, an Ogiek leader. "The only people who are going to benefit are the sawmillers."
NEW YORK TIMES
