Nairobi - Kenya came
under pressure on Wednesday to halt security operations in a
forest where a man was killed last week, as activists called on
Finland follow the European Union in suspending aid they said
was fuelling the land conflict.
A court in the western town of Eldoret on Monday ordered
forest guards and the police to stop evicting the Sengwer from
Embobut forest, which they claim as their ancestral land, until
Feb. 27 when it will hear their case.
More than 100 armed Kenya Forest Service (KFS) guards
entered the forest on Dec. 25, firing gunshots, burning homes
and killing livestock, the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights said.
"Most of the members of the Sengwer community are hiding in
the forest, staying in caves and other highly vulnerable places
exposed to the dangers of wild animals and vagaries of the
weather," 21 Sengwer petitioners said in court documents.
"The assault, burning and destruction of their properties is
a violation or threat of violation to their right to life."
Their battle illustrates global tension between indigenous
peoples and conservation policies excluding them from protected
forests. Land is an explosive political issue in Kenya.
The European Union (EU) shelved a $35 million water
conservation scheme in the forest on Jan. 17 after Kenya Forest
Service (KFS) guards killed a man belonging to the
hunter-gatherer community, which opposes the aid project.
The EU and Amnesty International will visit the forest on
Thursday, activists said.
The Sengwer petition, seen by the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, said they went to court after hearing local media
report on Jan. 19 that "the government would undertake air and
ground operation to evict all persons in Embobut Forest".
Police and county officials were not immediately available
to comment. Environment minister, Judi Wakhungu, said last week
that security forces were flushing criminals out of the forest.
Almost a dozen international rights groups called on Finland
on Wednesday to suspend a 9.5 million euro ($12 million)
project, working with KFS to support the forestry sector.
"This is funding the ongoing human rights abuses by KFS that
involve the burning of homes, forced evictions, and now their
killing of a Sengwer community member," the groups, including
the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme, said in an open letter.
The Sengwer have fought for more than five decades for the
right to live in the Embobut forest in the Cherengany Hills,
from where they were first evicted by British colonialists in
the 19th century.
"It's our call to the Finnish government to suspend this
project just like the EU," Sengwer activist Yator Kiptum said on
Wednesday. "KFS just continued burning homes today."
Dedan Ndiritu, KFS's head of conservancy in the region, told
the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone on Wednesday, that the
situation in Embobut forest was "normal" and "not much is
happening there".