The proposal to reopen Mau Forest for resettlement, including felling trees, is a really bad idea (P30). The Mau Forest comprises the largest water catchment in Kenya and enjoys some of the highest rainfall rates. It is the source of many rivers that feed lakes.
Clearing large areas of this water tower for settlement is a dumb idea and the only people who can argue it is a good thing are the settlers, who do not think in terms of the big picture. Endangering the Maasai Mara, Narok’s cash cow, is unacceptable.
Cutting down trees in the Mau Complex will make flooding in Narok worse.
If the former settlers forcibly evicted by Prime Minister Raila Odinga in 2009, when he implemented a Cabinet decision during the grand coalition regime, are given permission to go back in, this will be a disaster for both Narok and the environment.
It will exacerbate Kalenjin-Maasai relations and result in an environmental catastrophe whose effects could take generations to rectify.
