People restoring section of depleted forest in Kasigau, in south eastern Kenya. Courtesy: Wildlife Works

By Peter Kahare
KASIGAU, Kenya, Aug 20 2014 (IPS)

When Mercy Ngaruiya first settled in Kasigau in south eastern Kenya a decade ago, she found a depleted forest that was the result of years of tree felling and bush clearing.

“This region was literally burning. There were no trees on my farm when I moved here, the area was so dry and people were cutting down trees and burning bushes for their livelihood,” Ngaruiya, a community leader in Kasigau, told IPS.

Back then, she says, poverty and unemployment levels were high, there was limited supply of fresh water, and education and health services were poor.

Mike Korchinsky, the president of Wildlife Works, a Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project development and management company, remembers it all too well.

“When I came here, you could hear the sounds of axes as people constantly cut trees. Cutting down trees is doubly alarming because you have an immediate emission when the carbon that has been stored in the forest for centuries is released into the atmosphere, and then there is nothing to sequester the carbon that is being produced by human activities,” Korchinsky told IPS.

Tucked between Tsavo east and Tsavo west in Voi district, 150 kilometres northwest of Mombasa, Kenya’s coastal city, Kasigau region is slowly rising from the ashes as its green economy flourishes. This region of almost 100,000 people is beginning to grow as the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project, implemented in 2004 through Wildlife Works, slowly bears fruit.

“Things are changing now since my fellow villagers agreed to embrace environmental conservation. The environment is continuing to improve,” Ngaruiya said.

The open canopy along the Kasigau corridor is now regenerating and the REDD+ project is empowering thousands of residents here to abandon forest destruction and embrace new, sustainable livelihoods.

The green and vibrant section of Kasigau forest following conservation efforts and the successful implementation of a REDD+ project. Courtesy: Wildlife Works

Currently, the Kasigau REDD+ project generates over one million dollars annually through the sale of carbon, at about eight dollars per tonne, on the African Carbon Exchange.

One third of the revenue goes towards project development and is reinvested in income-generating green initiatives like manufacturing clothes (which are sold locally and internationally), agroforestry, and artificial charcoal production, among other activities.

A portion of the profit is also distributed directly to the land owners here.

“We no longer need to cut trees now for charcoal, we use biogas and eco-friendly charcoal made from pruned leaves. We cook while conserving trees,” resident Nicoleta Mwende told IPS.

Chief Pascal Kizaka is the administrator of Kasigau location. He told IPS that the REDD+ project has had real and direct solutions for poverty alleviation.

“Besides conservation, part of the profits has enabled construction of 20 modern classrooms in local schools, bursaries for over 1,800 pupils, a health centre and an industry — hence improving our standards of living,” Kizaka said.

The Kasigau project is the first verified REDD+ project in Kenya where communities living in the area are earning money from conserving their natural resources.

Trading in carbon credits is still in a nascent stage in Kenya.

But according to Alfred Gichu, the forestry climate change specialist at Kenya Forest Service, a state corporation that conserves and manages forests, the future of carbon credits trade in Kenya is bright.

There are 16 active, registered carbon credits projects and 26 others are in the process of being registered.

“Of the 26, 19 are energy-based, like the Geothermal Development Company, and seven involve reforestation projects,” Gichu told IPS. The expansive Mau forest in Kenya’s Rift Valley is a key target by the government for the carbon credits trade, he added.

When it comes to forests conservation, Kenya is one of the countries where policies have led to success according to “Deforestation Success Stories 2013” a report by the Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative.

The report cites the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project as a major success story, noting that by late 2012, revenues generated from the sale of voluntary carbon credits from the project had reached 1.2 million dollars.

According to a UNEP’s 2013 “Emissions Gap” report, promotion of tree planting on farms, schools and other public institutions; prohibiting harvesting of trees in public forests; and awareness creation by both the government and private conservationists are some of the policy measures in Kenya that have boosted forest cover.

But there are also challenges that hinder development of REDD+ projects here.

Moses Kimani, the director of the African Carbon Exchange, cites lack of expertise and finances as some of the major challenges hindering development of carbon credits trade.

“Besides poor policies and weak legislative framework, many carbon credits projects in Kenya and Africa lack the much-needed expertise and finance,” Kimani told IPS.

During last year’s United Nations climate change conference in Poland, participants agreed on a framework for REDD+ and pledged 280 million dollars in financing.

But environmentalists lament a lack of clear mechanisms to enable these adaptation funds to trickle down and reach local communities.

John Maina, an environmental conservationist, says that Kenyans running these projects were losing out to traders after selling carbon at throwaway prices due to low level of understanding.

“The government, civil society sector and NGOs should work together to strengthen regulations and sensitise Kenyans on carbon projects and how they can access financing,” Maina told IPS.

Edited by: Nalisha Adams

The writer can be contacted at pkahare@gmail.com

Six-year-old Victor Muruga points to a hole in the bush that he calls his “bedroom”. “I sleep there, under that tree and my mother sleeps under that blanket,” says Muruga.

Muruga is in a jovial mood as he prepares lunch for the family. The bubbly boy, his three-year old brother Ian Kimani and their mother had to initially spend five days in the bush after being transported here to Mumoi farm, enduring the scathing sun and biting cold as they waited for the government and Kenya Red Cross Society to provide them with tents.

Muruga’s family are among the 4,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) affected by Kenya’s 2007/2008 post-election violence who live here on Mumoi farm in Subukia Township, 200 kilometres north west of Nairobi. Four years after the violence, they are yet to be allocated their one-hectare piece of land that the government promised all IDPs.

The families living on Mumoi farm want the 1,2 hectare farm, but the government refuses to buy it for them, saying that they had been relocated there illegally.

“The ministry does not intend to buy that land because it is rocky and unsuitable for farming, and the government was not involved in moving them there,” Permanent Secretary in the Special Programmes Ministry, Andrew Mondo, told IPS.

Mondo says that other government ministries like the Ministries of Land, Agriculture, Water, Roads and Education need to be involved in assessing and endorsing the land, and settling IDPs.

In the country’s 2011/2012 budget allocation, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta set aside 60 million dollars for resettling IDPs. However, the process of resettlement has been characterised by corruption, tribalism and hostility to the IDPs.

Early last year, the government launched an investigation into a missing two million dollars that had been set aside for the resettlement IDPs, which had allegedly been misappropriated by officials in various ministries and even representatives of IDPs.

The 2007/2008 post-election violence displaced over 660,000 people, over half of whom were displaced in the Rift Valley Province. While more than 300,000 families have returned to their farms, and their ethnic homelands in Central, Nyanza and Western Provinces, some have sold the homes they were forced to flee from and bought land elsewhere.

There remain over 15,000 families displaced by the post-election violence awaiting their land settlements in Rift Valley Province, the largest province in Kenya. Each family has an average of five children.

“These are the people we recognise, plus the 5,710 families evacuated from the Mau Forest in 2009 who are camping in three major camps along the forest boundary,” Mondo says.

But the Mumoi farm IDPs refute allegations that they are not victims of the post-election violence and claim that the government wanted to resettle them in Central Province against their will. Naivasha Member of Parliament, John Mututho, then facilitated the relocation of the IDPs to Mumoi farm, claiming that the government had failed to resettle them.

“The government told all IDPs in the country to identify suitable land for themselves and alert the concerned ministry if they find it. That is what we did. We found this land and the seller is willing to sell it to us,” Ibrahim Kihara, spokesperson for IDPs at Mumoi farm, told IPS.

Last week, Mututho petitioned the high court to allow him to resettle IDPs. He has also sued the government for sabotaging the IDPs resettlement exercise.

But not everyone is happy that politicians have become embroiled in the row to resettle IDPs. A group of over 2,000 displaced persons from the country’s largest camp at Mawingu took to the streets early January to protest against being taken advantage of by politicians.

They also condemned Mututho for calling on IDPs to squat on private land.

“Politicians should stop misleading the IDPs, and politicising the resettlement issue to get votes in the forthcoming elections,” Osman Warfa, the Provincial Commissioner for Rift Valley Province, told IPS.

Another politician, Luka Kiagen, a Member of Parliament for Rongai Constituency, in the Rift Valley Province, has been leading a section of elders to complain over the settlement of IDPs in Rongai.

He claims that 10,000 people from the Kikuyu community had settled in Rongai at the expense of the largely Kalenjin community who had been evicted from the Mau Forest.

“People displaced from Mau Forest who are residing along the border have been forgotten in the resettlement programme,” Kigen told IPS.

The government maintains that there was no discrimination in the resettlement exercise.

“Such allegations are unfounded. It is not by choice that members of the Kikuyu community are the largest number of IDPs,” Mondo told IPS.

Non-governmental organisations and civil societies have blamed the government for the continued delay in resettling IDPs.

“The IDPs issue has exposed the intolerance and divisions among communities. The government has not been willing to clear this blot on the face of Kenya. It has failed in upholding the constitution that guarantees security and accommodation for all Kenyans by false promises for four years.

“The government claims that there is no land for relocation. But look at the thousands of acres owned by politicians and lying idle in the country. Can’t they be bought by the government at least to settle the IDPs?” Ndung’u Wainaina, director of the International Center for Policy and Conflict, told IPS.

In December 2011 the government created a task force mandated to fast track the resettlement process. But Peter Kariuki, the coordinator for the IDPs National Network, says that four years down the line this is “too little too late.”

Several years ago, Lakes Kamnarok and Ol Bollosat in Kenya were vibrant water bodies that supported and shaped the ecosystems around them. But today they are shells of their former selves, due to heavy siltation caused by human activities.

A crocodile carcass on Lake Kamnarok. In the distance cows graze on the lake bed. Credit: Peter Kahare

“Siltation is still happening, the lake is drying up and this is threatening Lake Kamnarok and the wildlife with extinction, besides affecting the lives of people around it,” Elijah Chemitei, senior warden in Baringo County, in the Rift Valley Province, told IPS. “Much of it is caused by upstream activities like tree-felling and charcoal-burning, agricultural activities, grazing and sand collection.”

Lake Kamnarok, in the arid county of Baringo, is the only oxbow lake (a crescent-shaped lake that is formed when a meander of a river is cut off from the main channel) in the country. It used to have the second-largest population of crocodiles in Africa, after Lake Chad.

“The crocodiles at the lake used to be over 30,000 in population; they are now less than 5,000 after many died while others prefer to inhabit the Kerio River that formed the lake. Wild animals at the Rimoi Game Reserve next to the lake are endangered and tourism in general is in jeopardy,” says Chemitai. Roy Kiplagat, a resident in Baringo County, says the displacement of the crocodiles has meant that domestic animals are now in danger of becoming prey.

“This is happening at Kerio Valley through which the Kerio River passes. Crocodiles that have moved out of the river have killed many goats as they drink water,” he says.

Chemitei says that Lake Kamnarok has become increasingly shallow, decreasing in size from 10 square kilometres to two square kilometres. He says people are felling trees, burning charcoal and farming in the nearby indigenous forests. So when it rains the soil is washed down into the lake.

The lake was once a water source for over 500 elephants and over 10 species of other mammals from the adjacent Rimoi Game Reserve. Other animals found around the lake are impalas, bushbucks, warthogs, leopards, buffaloes and an endangered mammal called funkleen.

However, Chemitai says that the number of tourists visiting Rimoi has reduced over the years because of the decreasing numbers of wild animals. And those wild animals that remain have retreated as cows have taken over the area for grazing.

Poaching is another challenge here.

“Poachers enter into the reserve to hunt. Last year we lost many animals to poachers and we are disadvantaged because we lack enough game rangers,” says Chemitai.

Chemitai said the County Council of Baringo, the local authority mandated to control human settlement, was partly to blame as it was reluctant to prevent people from intruding onto the riparian land.

“We are asking people who have encroached into the lake to move out. The County Council of Baringo has failed to control settlement and prevent illegal occupation in the riparian land,” Chemitai told IPS.

Albert Lagat, an environmental conservationist and the head of Esageri Sabatia Environmental Organization, an NGO that plants trees in deforested catchments, says urgent action needs to be taken to save Lake Kamnarok.

He notes that the Ketipborok, Cheplogoi, Oiwo and Chelabei Rivers that flow into Lake Kamnarok have either dried up completely or become seasonal following the destruction of their sources.

“The lake had plenty of water sometime back. Urgent measures like reforesting the forests with indigenous trees, sensitising people to protect the lake and to move out of the land near the lake should be taken,” says Lagat.

He adds that Lake Ol Bollosat, the only lake in Central Province and one of the few highland lakes in the world, has also suffered a similar fate.

A group of 250 families affected by Kenya’s post-election violence, which saw about 600,000 people displaced from their homes after the country’s disputed 2007 elections, have bought land on the shore of the lake where they have now settled.

Their destruction of the nearby Aberdare Forest has caused the rivers that run from the forest into Lake Ol Bollosat to dry up.

Lake Ol Bollosat used to be home to a number of hippopotamuses and up to 200 species of birds, and is the source of water that feeds Thompsons Falls, Kenya’s most scenic waterfall. Standing at 2,360 metres above sea level, the 72-metre waterfall is an important tourist attraction and source of revenue in Nyahururu, one of Kenya’s highest towns.

“This lake has reduced in size from between 5,000 to 10,000 hectares to less than 3, 000 hectares currently in less than three years. Consequently hundreds if not thousands of birds have shifted to other lakes or died, hippos have continued to die with tourists opting to go to other places,” Lagat told IPS.

Lagat says that despite the government’s order over a year ago that people encroaching on Aberdare Forest be moved; nothing has been done. Last year, the Environmental Ministry introduced a policy that directed the cutting down of eucalyptus trees in wetlands and along riverbanks. The trees are blamed for their consumption of huge amounts of water.

“Some people have, however, continue to grow these trees to the detriment of rivers and important catchment areas,” Lagat says.

However, William Kimosop, a game warden at Baringo, says that the Kenya Wildlife Service is working hard to protect these resources and open up the region to tourism.

By Peter Kahare and - -
RIFT VALLEY, Kenya, Nov 1 2011 (IPS)

Amina Shakir (not her real name) fled the drought and famine in Somalia for a better life in Kenya. But she did so illegally, placing her faith in the hands of a criminal network headed by Mukhalis or agents in Swahili. In the end her faith was misplaced as she was “sold” into employment upon finally reaching Kenya.

Undocumented immigrants in court in Nakuru town, Rift Valley Province. Credit: Peter Kahare/IPS

Shakir’s journey took her from a collection point in Somalia to a transaction point in Eastleigh estate, in Kenya. She and several other girls made the over 1,000-kilometre journey in a truck under the guard of five men.

“I was not alone, other girls were in the truck as well, one man was also there. Our handlers assured us of our safety till we get to our destination. I felt I was in safe hands,” Shakir told IPS in halting Swahili.

But when she arrived in Eastleigh estate, a suburb in Nairobi that has become an international business centre, she was sold into employment. She now works as a shop attendant for her “buyer”.

Womankind Kenya, a non-governmental organisation based in Garissa in Kenya’s North Eastern Province, estimates that 50 young girls are trafficked or smuggled to Nairobi from here and Somalia each week.

“Vehicles that transport miraa (a leafy narcotic) from Kenya to Somalia return loaded with young girls and women who end up in brothels in Nairobi or who are shipped to destinations outside Kenya,” says Hubbie Hussein, Womankind Kenya’s director.

The Deputy Provincial Police Officer in Rift Valley Province, Kenya’s largest and most populous province, Ephantus Kiura, confirmed this. “Over 200 illegal immigrants enter the province every week from Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia through (Kenya’s over 400-kilometre porous boarder section), which it shares with these countries,” Kiura says.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that over 10,000 people are trafficked into Kenya’s Coast Province each year. The organisation says that trafficked children from Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda work as domestic labourers, sex workers and cattle herders across Kenya.

“As of Sept. 28 there were more than 452,000 refugees, mostly Somalis, at Daadab camp. The huge influx of refugees has complicated the movement of people in the region, it has increased the vulnerability of people to trafficking, smuggling and other forms of exploitation,” says Jean-Phillipe Chauzy the head of communications at IOM.

Hussein says that Nairobi is the central market from where girls are distributed to different parts of Kenya and to other countries.

“From Nairobi many girls are sent to Mombasa (Kenya’s international tourist destination along the coast) where underage girls are trafficked for sex tourism. They are taken to massage parlours or beauty shops, where contacts from tour operators and hotels come to select the ones they wish to take as sex workers in the tourism industry,” says Hussein

The head of Womankind Kenya says that these tour operators and hotel workers work as brokers and charge a fee of 600 dollars for young girls aged between 10 and 15 years who are mostly sold into sexual slavery. “The trafficked children are taken to secluded villas in Mombasa where sex tourism thrives,” says Hussein.

A report released in October by the International Peace Institute and the Africa Centre for Open Governance says the majority of people trafficked in East Africa are women and children who are sold into prostitution or forced labour.

The report says traffickers and smugglers prey on drought, poverty and conflict in the Horn of Africa to smuggle people to Nairobi and across the world with the promise of a better life.

“People are fleeing the hardship in their countries to settle in Mombasa and Nairobi, some move to Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and even to South Africa. Some want to get better jobs but end up in forced labour or sex slavery,” the programme officer at the advocacy and legal advisory centre at Transparency International, Fatuma Asaad, told IPS.

However, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons, Emmanuel Kisombe, says Kenya has put in place effective legislation to curb trafficking. The Counter Trafficking in Persons Act was signed by President Mwai Kibaki in 2010.

“Under the law, trafficking in persons is now criminal and people involved in or convicted of the offence face a 30-year jail term and a fine of over 300,000 dollars,” says Kisombe.

But Kiura doubts that effective legislation will stop the trafficking. He told IPS that corruption permeates virtually the country’s entire security system and immigration departments meant to implement the law.

According to one Kenyan human trafficking agent, the networks have links to politicians, senior police officers, non-governmental organisations, senior immigration officials, airline officers and resettlement officials in various countries.

“These powerful people, including foreign diplomats and ministers in Kenya, have transformed access to foreign visas into a growth industry matched possibly only by piracy, selling visas for 10,000 to 15,000 dollars each to leaders of the networks,” the agent says.

The Provincial Police Officer in Coast Province, Aggrey Adoli, says 140 people are arrested weekly after being smuggled or trafficked into Kenya amounting to 7,280 arrests per year.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg since illegal immigration has increased in the recent past due to droughts and conflict,” Adoli says.

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