forest furore

Kenya: What’s creating conflict over water and land usage in Mount Kenya Forest Reserve

By Kang-Chun Cheng

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Posted on May 12, 2023 15:23

© A villager from Mikundi village walking through a section of Gathiuru forest in Mt Kenya forest, helping with the community tree-planting initiative now that the droughts are over (Photo by Kang-Chun Cheng) — A villager from Mikundi village walking through a section of Gathiuru forest in Mt Kenya forest, helping with the community tree-planting initiative now that the droughts are over (Photo by Kang-Chun Cheng)

A succession of battering droughts starting in late 2020 in the Horn of Africa region brought mass internal movement and displacement, particularly within Kenya’s Mount Kenya Forest Reserve, despite relief from this May’s early rains. Many herders were forced to forge far from home in search of water and pastures for their animals. But the woes of the reserve are not only due to climate change, but to practices that have eroded the land’s ecological system.

Mount Kenya Forest Reserve suffered major mismanagement while under the control of President Daniel arap Moi (Kenya’s second president) in the 1990s when the forest was parceled so that huge swaths of land could be doled out to buy votes.

These plots were cleared to make way for farming and milked of all economic value – a political move that had lasting

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