Kenya bans land grabs, graft-watchers sceptical
Date: 25-Feb-02
Country: KENYA
Author: James Macharia
Western diplomats and Kenyan green groups said they welcomed the ban but expressed scepticism that the government would enforce the measure, as doing so would cut off a key channel of cash ahead of elections due by December.
Moi said late last week he was aware of grave irregularities in the allocation and administration of public land and that in some instances government and trust land have been allocated illegally.
"This situation has led to serious depletion of our forests and the loss of land reserved for public purposes, including playgrounds, road reserves, wildlife corridors, water points, school plots, livestock holding grounds, cemetries and parks," a statement by Moi said.
Opposition activists say Moi's government has for years parcelled out forest land to politicians ahead of elections to buy support, under the guise of clearing trees to make way for housing for landless squatters.
Once given title deed to the land, politicians often sell it and either pocket the proceeds or use the money to buy votes.
Moi's government, tarred for years by graft allegations, is presiding over the worst recession since independence.
Moi has been under increasing pressure to tackle corruption from donors who suspended loans to Kenya in 2000, concerned that graft was thwarting attempts to revive the ailing economy.
Moi's order follows disclosures by newspapers citing official documents in January of the illegal allocation of 167,000 hectares of state-owned forest land to public officials including Moi himself and Environment Minister Joseph Kamotho.
Kamotho responded on behalf of the government at the time by saying it had no need to apologise for destroying forests.
"Why cry over spilt milk?," the minister told reporters. "I am not going back to history; what has been done was done according to the law."
The new ban will remain in place until the government takes new policy decisions based on a report to be issued later this year by a commission of inquiry into laws to do with land.
Moi appointed the commission in November 1999.
"We welcome the President's directive and hope it will be rigorously enforced," said Mark Norton, the British High Commission (embassy) spokesman said.
"The British government considers forests to be of utmost importance as a source of water to Kenya, and it is extremely important that they be preserved."
POLITICAL GIMMICK?
"I hope that the statement will be implemented, and that it is not a political gimmick," Michael Gachanja, the Kenya Forest Working Group spokesman, said.
"The President should elaborate on the excision areas so that people are clear on which areas the ban applies," he said. "I wonder whether the ban applies to the land already issued to individuals who hold title deeds?" he added.
"We welcome it but you have to be cautious in view of the failure to stop this practice in the past," said a spokesman for Transparency International-Kenya, an anti-graft group.
Kenyan greens have campaigned against a government order issued in October, saying it would clear 170,000 acres (69,000 hectares) of woodland to house squatters. It is not clear whether Moi's order will retroactively apply to that order.
Environmentalists say felling swathes of woodland wreaks irreparable damage on the ecosystem of the coffee-and tea-growing nation of 28 million, destroying vital water catchment areas that sustain farming and hydroelectric power.
The forests act like giant sponges, soaking up moisture during the rainy season then slowly releasing it to keep rivers flowing to towns, villages and coffee-and tea-growing areas.
Environmentalists estimate that British colonialists and Kenyan farmers have cleared about three quarters of woodlands in the last 150 years, leaving about two percent of Kenya's land area under forest cover.
