Hosea Nailel (5039), Julius Muriuki, (5103) and Peter Chesang (5106) joined over 2,000 participants in Nakuru Town in a race that aimed to bridge ethnic divisions ahead of this country’s March 2013 elections. Credit: Peter Wahwai/IPS

By Peter Wahwai
RIFT VALLEY, Kenya , Dec 21 2012 (IPS)

Runners Hosea Nailel and Julius Muriuki, who are from Kenya’s rival ethnic Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities respectively, met during a half marathon when they broke away from the pack and remained in the leading group. 

They shared water during the race and tried to outdo each other at various sections of the last stretch. They did not talk; they only tried to outrun each other.

Having met for the first time at the newly-inaugurated Menengai Half Marathon in Nakuru Town, Rift Valley Province in November, Nailel and Muriuki have become friends and want to become training partners.

It is particularly poignant in a country where the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities from the Rift Valley Province have been involved in deadly ethnic clashes almost every election year since 1992. The worst of it was in the 2007-2008 post-election violence, in which over 1,300 people were killed, 3,000 women were raped and more than 600,000 people were displaced, according to a report by the government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence.

Nakuru County in Rift Valley Province was considered a political hotbed during the 2007-2008 election violence. And tensions are flaring in the country again ahead of the 2013 polls. This month the investment group Old Mutual Kenya said that ethnicity would also play a role in the upcoming elections.Recently inter-ethnic violence has flared in this East African nation over competition for resources.

On Sep. 9, 38 people were killed in revenge attacks in the Tana River Delta district of Kenya’s Coast Province. The deceased include eight children, five women, 16 men, and nine police officers.

In August four people were killed in a separate incident in Muradellow village in Mandera North, in North Eastern Province. Police said that the conflict occurred at a water point where herders had taken their animals.

In March, 22 people were killed in Mandera, in North Eastern Province. More than 1,500 people fled their homes as a result of the violence, which occurred in El Golicha village, close to Kenya’s border with Somalia.

But ethnic differences mean little to the two talented runners.

“I met Muriuki and several other athletes from Central Kenya at the marathon. I did not know him before, but since then we have been in communication, and we shall meet soon. We plan to train together and compete in a forthcoming half marathon. As athletes we shall use our talent to demonstrate unity,” Nailel, who comes from Eldoret town in North Rift Valley, which also experienced ethnic violence after the country’s 2007 election, told IPS.

Nailel, who placed sixth in the Paris Half Marathon in October, led a squad of runners from North Rift Valley to join over 2,000 participants in Nakuru Town in a race that aimed to bridge ethnic divisions ahead of this country’s March 2013 elections.

“Such races will definitely unite different communities and eventually the nation; Kenyans are known for uniting behind their sportsmen and women,” Nailel said.

Muriuki lives in Nyahururu, a town in Central Province, and is an up-and-coming runner.

“They are great runners,” Muriuki said of Nailel’s team. “They helped me improve my speed, it was a united race and we raced together to the finish line. I am in communication with Nailel and some of the other runners and I look forward to meeting them at the next race,” Muriuki told IPS.

Muriuki had appeared strong throughout the race but Nailel broke away at the finish and clocked 61:02 to win the half marathon with Muriuki coming in fourth. Muriuki was the only runner from Central Province who finished in one of the top 10 positions in the race, while Nailel’s team registered a convincing victory by scooping all the other positions.

Nailel and Muriuki hope that running will help melt the differences of their respective ethnic groups.

“It was very encouraging to see residents of Nakuru Town line up by the sides of the roads to cheer us on as we passed through the streets. We felt encouraged and part of Nakuru despite it being our first time participating in a race in the town,” said Nailel of the majority Kikuyu community in Nakuru Town.

Muriuki agreed: “It was the first time we met with many of these athletes in such large numbers and it would be a great thing that such events continue uniting young people from opposing communities.”

Both he and Nailel talk about finding a suitable place to train together. They think that Nakuru Town, where they met, could be a possible training ground because of its strategic location between their home towns. They also discuss visiting each other regularly.

Their show of unity is encouraging to others.

Athletics Kenya secretary general David Okeyo said that athletics was one of the most practical ways to build unity among communities ahead of the country’s March 2013 elections.

“There are hundreds of upcoming (runners) from different communities who can do more than just run, they can unite communities, if we bring them together like we did in Nakuru,” he told IPS.

Okeyo said that races like these were very important in areas like Nakuru County and the entire Rift Valley Province where the 2007-2008 clashes occurred.

Nakuru North District Commissioner Michael Kagika said that participating in races was a rare opportunity for athletes to use their sporting talents to unite, and to mend their differences.

“The marathon is a major step towards building and sustaining peace among communities living in Nakuru County and Rift Valley Province. It brought different cultures and communities together and it came at a time when Kenya is poised to hold the general election,” Kagika told IPS.

Currently 100 saw millers are licensed to log 50,000 hectares of mature exotic and indigenous trees in the Mau forest reserve - the largest in Kenya stretching across 400,000 hectares. Credit: Peter Wahwai/IPS

By Peter Wahwai
RIFT VALLEY, Kenya, Nov 2 2012 (IPS)

Kenya’s Ogiek community, the indigenous group of hunter-gatherers who were evicted from the Mau Forest three years ago, say they will no longer sit by and watch logging companies profit from the resources of their traditional home while they live in poverty in tented camps around the forest without even the most basic of services, like sanitation.

“The Ogiek community has lived and depended on the Mau Forest since time immemorial,” Joseph Towett, national coordinator of the Ogiek Welfare Council, told IPS. “We have only been involved in conservation efforts through tree planting, and we do not benefit from the money accrued from this forest.

“Yet we do not see the government move to initiate development projects in the locations of Mariashoni, Neiswet and Tinet where the Ogiek community now lives.”

Currently 100 saw millers are licensed to log 50,000 hectares of mature exotic and indigenous trees in the forest reserve – the largest in the country stretching across 400,000 hectares. The millers have permits to harvest the mature trees before they fall into decay and generate over one million Kenyan shillings or 11,000 dollars in revenue for the government each month.

For the last three years some 20,000 Ogiek have been living on the outskirts of the forest in three areas: Mariashoni, Neiswet and Tinet.

The Ogiek community was forcefully evicted from the forest in 2009 after a government order to stop the massive deforestation occurring here. The government promised to find alternative land for the evictees. But in 2011 Minister for Lands James Orengo admitted that mistakes were made in the eviction process.

The community has to travel to other villages to access health care and schools. The Ogiek say that because they have to travel on foot, it takes them four to six hours to get to the nearest health facility, while children spend two to four hours a day going back and forth to school.

Towett said that the Ogiek want the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), the government agency that protects forests, to give them permission to harvest a four-hectare plantation of 8,000 mature cypress trees.

He said that they planned to enter into an agreement with a private logging company that would log and purchase the trees from them. The sale of all the trees is expected to bring in an estimated 350,000 dollars.

“This money will go towards the construction of roads, schools and health facilities. We know it is not enough, but it will be used for the most critical projects … to prevent the deaths of sick women and children that have previously occurred due to lack of facilities,” he said.

Children from the Ogiek community at the Mariashoni area near the Mau Forest. The community has to travel to other villages to access health care and schools. Courtesy: Peter Wahwai

According to the KFS, there are up to 100 licensed saw millers, including three major timber companies, who carry out tree harvesting in the Mau Forest. Loggers also have to pay the government, through the KFS, an additional fee of between 17 to 60 dollars per tree cut.

“The loggers are licensed and they operate on over 50,000 hectares of tree plantation,” the head of the Mau Forest Conservancy, Cosmas Ikiugu, told IPS. “They also harvest mature indigenous trees, and they generate over one million shillings (11,000 dollars) in revenue per month. The revenue is good, but not as high as claimed by some of the Ogiek leaders.”

The director of KFS, David Mbugua, told IPS that according to the 2005 Forest Act, a genuine saw miller must meet several requirements as stipulated by the law. This includes owning logging equipment and processing machines, and being able to provide proof of tax payments. These, he said, are requirements that the Ogiek and other communities do not meet.

Mbugua said that although the community cannot be licensed to harvest trees, it could work with the KFS to find a way to benefit from the forest.

“The Ogiek community has a genuine issue and I am aware of their concerns because we have discussed these topics with their leaders. They feel left out in development and feel that they have a right to a share of the revenue from the Mau Forest, which is constitutional. However, allowing them to get into the forest to cut trees is not the way to go. If we allow them to do that, what about other communities who also live not so far from the forest?” asked Mbugua.

He said that the Ogiek should send proposals for the projects they would like to see implemented to the KFS’s corporate social responsibility department.

But Towett claimed that corruption in the KFS was rife. He said that out of the 100 licensed saw millers, less than 30 are allocated trees because they bribe officials of KFS. The forestry service regulates which millers are allowed to harvest trees in the Mau Forest. The loggers cut down trees in turns every month, and some get more turns at logging than others.

“The three major companies normally remit (to the government) 500 million shillings (five million dollars), while the remaining saw millers remit up to 100 million shillings (one million dollars). But much of this money goes into individuals’ pockets,” said Towett. The Ogiek community believes that were it not for mismanagement of the money, there would be enough resources to initiate development projects for them.

Ikiugu confirmed that the loggers cut trees in turn, but he denied claims that some are favoured over others.

The Ogiek have also asked that the government allocate 320 square kilometres of land near the forest for their permanent settlement.

“Just like any other community, the Ogiek have a right to a portion of the revenue generated from the forest. They should demand their fair share of the revenue through legal means, including suing the government,” said environmental lawyer Bernard Ngetich. But he said he was against allowing the community to live in or next to the forest.