NEWS 2009

MIL/God Believers/NYT

November 15, 2009

God Believers urge Kenya Govt. to rehabilitate dwellers after evicting from forests

New Delhi, India: November 15, 2009 – IR Summary/God Believers/NYT -  On the name of Climate Change, the Kenya Govt. has decided to push out all the honey hunters from the forests where they have been staying since time immemorial, and it is their home; meaning thereby tens of thousands of such dwellers would be rendered homeless by a stroke of an order without any future for them; don’t they deserve to be rehabilitated, questions God Believers?

Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist, Lead Man of God Believers, World Peace & Earth Saving Mission, (WP&ESM) has urged the Kenya Govt. to provide alternative accommodation for their livings, since these Ogiek farmers have been Kenya’s traditional forest dwellers since time immemorial and they deserve sympathy and favor before being thrown out of these forests abruptly. 

"Though it is an internal matter of Kenya, God Believers, take it their duty to remind the govt. of the human rights of these unfortunate dwellers to which they should consider before turning them out from the forest," Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist said.

Dr. Raj Baldev, Lead Man of God Believers, said, "These dwellers normally track antelope with homemade bows, make medicine from leaves and trap bees to produce honey. 

"The govt. even otherwise, has been discouraging such dwellers by prosecuting them and causing different problems for them from time to time with regular intervals,, but these dwellers have no other home, no other source of survival, so they stay there in the forest despite all odds installed against them by the Govt. 

"These Ogieks are well known hunters in East Africa but the Kenyan government has finally decided to evict them on the plea that they have been living the forests illegally, particularly in the Mau Forest, which is known as Ogiek’s ancestral home. The govt. has no plan to rehabilitate them or to provide any relief that they are otherwise entitled to seek," Dr. Raj Baldev said.

Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist, Lead Man of God Believers, World Peace & Earth Saving Mission (WP&ESM) futher said that he is not against any action to protect the global warming or climate change, or to take any action to serve their nation, but the mission of God Believers is to remind the authorities to treat such people under human rights that give them privilege to survive. It is an international duty of each nation to provide some relief to their own countrymen when taking such a drastic action so suddenly to make them homeless; where will they go? 

God Believers (WP&ESM) is further well aware that Mau Forest is very important for the country, it captures rains and feed several lakes and rivers across the region, so much so it contributes even to the flow of the Nile. 

Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist, the Lead Mana of God Believers feel that the Govt has failed in their planning to make best use of this area, and it is around 15 years now that the govt. has not got any tangible results from their planning. The people deputed on the job to correct the preparation or put on contracts, are highly corrupt, they got around 30% trees cut off and sold them out to achieve huge profits. 

"The wrong planning of the country as such has forced the scientists to conclude that the environmental destruction has led to flash floods, micro-climate change, and soil erosion and has further made the lakes dry and unserviceable", Dr. Raj Baldev said.

As per New York Times, the results were painfully obvious this summer when East Africa was hit by one of the worst droughts in years. 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 Kenyans believe contributed to the recent spike in crime and unemployment.

Suddenly, the Kenyan government seemed to spring into action, commissioning hefty environmental reports and 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 environmental altruism has bred suspicion as well. Many Ogiek wonder if Kenyan politicians, notorious as among the world’s most corrupt, 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 saw-millers.”  more ...

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