In March 2006, 3000 residents in Kipkurere/Ng’atimkong forests along Uasin Gishu/Nandi Districts being evicted to pave way for forests reclamation.
As usual opposition politicians and human rights civil society organizations (CSO) jumped the gun and saw political capital and mileage to be gained from such an action. George Khroda, a senior Kenyan government civil servant, came out strongly to water down the media blitz that politicians had created.
“The evictions commenced on 20th March 2006 with no resistance at all as the squatters had already obeyed the order and subsequently left leaving structures only on site. This forest is a major water catchment for a number of rivers from which a large population in Western Kenya relies upon for their water supplies. The rivers also feed into Lake Victoria.” The PS reckoned.
What the politicians and human rights activists don’t tell Kenyans however is that the decimation of forests and annihilation of vegetation are at the core of our perennial drought experiences.
It is now official, forest destruction in East Africa and climatic changes are among the major causes of drought currently ravaging the region, says Dr Klaus Toepfer, former Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
“Drought is no stranger to the peoples of East Africa. It is a natural climatic phenomenon. What has dramatically changed in recent decades is the ability of nature to supply essential services like water and moisture during hard times. This is because so much of nature’s water and rain-supplying services have been damaged, destroyed or cleared. These facts are especially poignant when you factor in the impact of climate change which is triggering more extreme weather events like droughts,” says Toepfer.
While issues of good governance and conflicts in water scarce regions can be said to contribute largely to drought, Toepfer argues that the current drought is strongly linked to the decimation of forests, grasslands, wetlands and other critical ecosystems.
Toepfer urges countries in the Eastern African region to invest in the rehabilitation of their ‘natural or nature capital’ in order to safeguard vulnerable communities against future droughts. He also advocates that donors back such schemes aimed at overcoming poverty and delivering sustainable and long lasting economic development while tackling the emissions of fossil fuels, which are raising global warming.
Rainfall over the past year has been poor and the recent rainy season of October to December 2005 has been dismal, according to the Kenyan Meteorological Department and the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS-NET) Network.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) now says that drought conditions throughout the Greater Horn of Africa were likely to continue in many areas between February and the beginning of April. ICPAC’s Climate Outlook early 2006 edition indicated that much of “Somalia, Kenya, eastern and southern Ethiopia, southern Sudan, northern Uganda and north-eastern areas of the United Republic of Tanzania will experience below-normal to near-normal rainfall, while northern parts of the Greater Horn of Africa are likely to remain very dry. The only sectors that might benefit from random precipitation events are those close to large bodies of water: southern, western and north-western United Republic of Tanzania; Burundi, Rwanda, southern Uganda, western Kenya and coastal parts of Somalia.”
Christian Lambrechts, an expert in UNEP’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment, says: “Globally something like 62 per cent of precipitation occurs over land as a result of evapo-transpiration from lakes and wetlands and dense vegetation, in particular forests pumping water held in the soils, into the air. In comparison only around 38 per cent of precipitation is generated over oceans and seas, It is impossible to do anything about precipitation from oceans and seas but there is a lot we can do about the land. Trees not only assist the land in absorbing water when it rains, helping to feed rivers and lakes, wetland and underground aquifers. But they also act as natural pumps, bringing moisture from around two metres below into the air. Here it can fall back as showers and rainfall,”
Lambrechts says that the amount of average rainfall in an East African city like Nairobi was around 1,200 mm a year whereas in Paris, France, it was less averaging around 800 to 900mm a year. The difference is that the rainfall in France is characterized by smaller but more frequent rainfall whereas in Nairobi it tends to fall in larger less frequent amounts. Lambrechts urges Kenya to invest more in vegetation as one way of storing and returning moisture to the air so as to increase the chances of regular rainfall throughout the year.
In response to the drought of 1999-2000, UNEP compiled a report which estimated that in the short period between between 2000 and 2003 major water catchment’s areas like Mount Kenya forest, the Mau forest, Mount Elgon’s forests and the Cherangani forest were deforested by between 0.2 per cent and over two per cent.
“These forests together with the Aberdares constitute 91 per cent of the total water catchments protection forest value in the country,” says the report.
A more detailed study, on Changes in Forest Cover in Kenya’s Five ‘Water Towers’ 2000-2003 done by the Kenya Forestry Working Group (KFWG) in conjunction with the Department of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing (DRSRS) paints a sordid picture worse than that hyped by politicians:
“The forests of Mount Kenya, Aberdare ranges, Mau Complex, Mt Elgon, and Cherangani Hills are important water catchments areas for Kenya. In total they cover one million hectares and form the upper catchments of all main rivers of Kenya except Tsavo River. The rivers serve as sources of water for hydroelectric generation, irrigation, agriculture and industrial processes. The forests protect soil and water on which agriculture depends and form habitats for our wildlife on which our tourism industry depends. They act as reservoirs for biodiversity and serve as sinks for carbon. Their importance in supply of timber and non-timber products to the communities living within their surroundings cannot be over-emphasized. As such these forests are important and support the livelihoods of all Kenyans in one way or another.” Says the report.
Many of these areas are also key tourist destinations and are both nationally and internationally important reserves including the Maasai Mara, Serengeti and Kakamega Forest Reserve. A follow up aerial survey in 2005 revealed that the destruction of the Mau complex continues with encroachment of charcoal burning operations, subsistence farms and other developments now impacting the entire western part of the Maasai Mau forest. Heavily impacted areas now cover just over 11,000 square km.
According to a survey report carried out for KenGen, the country’s electricity generating company, Masinga Dam, which provides over 50 per cent of the country’s electricity, is silting up as a result of forest loss upstream.
In December 2000 the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) issued The Global Trends 2015 dossier, which warned of widespread instability, “necessitated by a shortage of the single most contested resource in the planet – drinking water.” Politics and sensationalism aside its from this context that we should view the current forest evictions.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: “Are our forests being managed sustainably and are communities within forests ecosystems benefiting from these natural resource. Have your say but stick to facts and erase factoids in your comments and views.”