Mau Forest Farmers versus Trees

Interviewee

Martin Githoga

Farmer newly arrived in Mau Forest

Interviewers

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

Alison M Fast

Videographer

Near Eldoret in the Mau Forest, Kenya, on September 21 , 2009

Introductory Note

Our expedition was fortunate to drive by a friendly cluster of local Mau Forest settlers on the road, who were happy to discuss with us their plight of having come here since their farms were dry. Interestingly it was their geography lessons in school that drew them to the Mau Forest. However that much of that forest and its small streams were already gone. NWNL listened to their frustrated dreams, reality and concerns for their future. Their farms in lower elevations had become unsustainable and the Mau Forest as well was suffering from lack of rains due to Kenya’s increasingly severe drought cycles. Martin – and others like him – were caught in a trap that forced them to find a new way to survive.

But their new farms’ use of water remaining in the Mau worsened drought difficulties of many more downstream. Now their land was no longer receiving the benefit of the Mau’s role as a water tower for millions surrounding this elevated forest.

Outline

MARTIN’S DREAM to FARM
DRIVEN by DROUGHT to the FOREST
PEOPLE’S NEEDS v FOREST PROTECTION
SMALL-HOLDERS LIVES in the FOREST
DOWNRIVER CONSEQUENCES

Key Quote There is a constant need of people in the forest to fell the trees. Instead, we need a systematic way to help the people with a replacement for fuelwood so that we can save the environment. – Martin Githoga

MARTIN’S DREAM to FARM

NWNL Hello, Martin. Thank you for taking time from working on your farm here in the Mau Forest to chat with us about the impact of many new farms replacing the critical forests here on this mountain range. Our focus is to try to understand what awareness exists among residents today – many of them newly arrived – of deforestation here causing loss of water supplies downstream.

MARTIN GITHOGA Showing the little people how to take care of the trees is the problem that we have, because people are given the land from the community. President Moi just came, and said, “Please can you help these people?” They were affected by the drought of 1992.

The Kikuyus came here, and they grabbed the Mau Forest. So, the destruction that you see here is because of them. Government people don’t talk the truth. And the weather is being changed.

NWNL What is your situation here in the Mau Forest?

MARTIN GITHOGA I lease farmland. Those, like me, who finished school but are jobless here in Mau Forest don’t have anything to do other than to cultivate the land. There are many people here who went to school, are diplomatized with degrees from school, who don’t argue, and who don’t want to lean on their parent. They go get a small amount of money, then risk the jump of a leopard.

NWNL Who gives you the money to lease your ¼ of an acre of land that you want to farm?

MARTIN GITHOGA I borrowed cash and I saved. I use a little, and then I save the rest.

DRIVEN by DROUGHT to the FOREST

NWNL What do you plant and grow in your plot?

MARTIN GITHOGA I grow maize. But if you look at the weather now, it is not favorable. No rain. But the other years, it was so favorable in this place.

NWNL Have you lived here all your life? If not, how long have you lived here?

MARTIN GITHOGA No, no, no. I have lived here for 5 years. I came from Central Province to find a way of survival. We have been welcomed by the Kalenjin people – the original tribe of this place.

NWNL Why did you decide to leave central Kenya and come here? What made you say, “This is where I want to go?”

MARTIN GITHOGA In Central Province, we grew cash crops like the tea, coffee, but had to deal with the corruption. In Kenya’s coffee industry, you plant, you harvest, you go to the factory. Then the money is counted. But you cannot get it – despite your work. If you go to central Kenya, you see people are poor. Despite the amount [of coffee] you buy in a European country – even though you buy it at a high price – the people down here don’t have anything. They are just the workers.

You feel you cannot continue in that system. There are problems if you do this, this or this. You seal those bottles, but later are told they were not sealed. So, you cannot continue living somewhere where you’re not even getting the pay-off. Here, when our crops are harvested, we get the bounty of our harvest. It’s better here, despite the very tragic problem of last year’s elections, and even though we have not recovered yet from that.

NWNL So, you knew before you came that this would be a better place to grow your own crops and that you could make a profit?

MARTIN GITHOGA [I knew that] mainly because I have been in school. I have been learning geography. I know the geography of this place. It is different.

PEOPLE’S NEEDS v FOREST PROTECTION

NWNL What do you think will happen here with the drought being an incentive for more people to come here as you have done? There is concern about the Mau Forest losing too many trees, causing its streams to dry up? Have you heard about those impacts?

MARTIN GITHOGA Through the news, we have been learning this. But the problem is people are not talking the truth, because population since 1992 has been growing when the politicians began giving people land here, and in 1997 when the people were entering here. Those people had been evicted from their homes in certain places. The Indian people of Baringo Center or Lake Baringo people were dying there because of the hunger. In Central Kenya it was the same, – it is a place that is not favorable for growing food.

NWNL I understand. But now things are different. Today, in the news, politicians are warning that Kenya must replant this forest. Do you read about that?

MARTIN GITHOGA Yes.

NWNL The government warns about having to move people out of the forest, so they can replace the trees that were cut so the rivers don’t dry up.

MARTIN GITHOGA All of us want the environment to return to the way it was. But you must consider some things. Populations here have expanded by a large amount. For example, me…? I came here without a wife, but I have two children. After some time, the positions of particular people like the Kalenjin harden. If you go around here, you can see people trying to cultivate the fields and raise cows. But cows cannot be grazed in a small quarter of land. Thus, they expand their areas so their cattle can eat.

If you want to entrust the people, you must consider those in their traditional communities who are cultivating fields here, like the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu.

NWNL Do you understand – and do other people here understand – that without the trees, there is no water for the people who live further down the rivers.

MARTIN GITHOGA Me…, I’m a Kikuyu, one of the two tribes here. I also know the Kalenjin, the other tribe here, and that they care for the environment.

Most of us want development. Even the people who have recently landed here, we see there is something that has happened which is not good. Who can we blame? Should we blame the people, the illiterate people here? Should we blame the government because it is the one who failed to come up with a map to care for our development?

If only they had given out land outside of the water catchment area. We shouldn’t live by the rivers and water resources here in the forest. In Swahili, we say “cha maji” which means catchment areas. We should leave that catchment area empty.

Now, people are being given land by the forest. They want to care for the environment; but it is very hard and already much of the forest has been cut down. So, what the government should come do is come and bring the trees. It should take the youth who are not employed and let them go and plant the trees.

NWNL They say the trees will come back quickly if you plant them and you keep people away.

MARTIN GITHOGA But, remember, people here already here and the Kikuyus, they have their mode of life here. They have problems, but they think the government of Kenya covers the truth.. Should we consider their priorities? We need trees, but we also need to consider the people.

The youth in Kenya needs development and all Kenyans need the trees so the forest can hold the rain here. But there are so many people living here in the Mau – about 1.5 million.. We need the land for them, and we need the trees for the rest of the country and its rivers.

Yes, we need the environment, but we have a high amount of people coming out of school day by day and out of university to be diplomats or find new job. If the government system fails to give these youth opportunities, they will just come here to cut the trees to earn the living, to burn charcoal – all of which it is not good.

NWNL What will happen if people are removed from the land so that the forest can grow back? Is there anything that can be done for the people who have lived here – the 1.5 million people you say live here? Can Kenya both help those people, and help the forest?

MARTIN GITHOGA It is a very good question, but…. The government can come with a very good plan, and we can leave the forest; but will they pay the people to go? And I don’t mean a meager small amount of money. There is now great economic frustration in Kenya. We continue suffering here – even the children who have been born here will suffer – the children, the schools, the parents who have been supporting the children.

NWNL If the government comes in and says, “You must leave” and give you a little money, where would you go? What would you do?

MARTIN GITHOGA I could start a small business. Others could come here to plant the trees to help the government plant the trees. We don’t want to be enemy of the government at the end of the day. We want to be people who are friends.

NWNL So, there is a compromise. There is a solution. You can stay here if you are working here planting trees – but, you can’t live here.

MARTIN GITHOGA I’m talking on behalf of the people who live here – the 1.5 million people living here in Mau. There is a constant need of people in the forest to fell the trees. Instead, we need a systematic way to help the people with a replacement for fuelwood so that we can save the environment. We know that something went wrong in the government because there was nobody to educate us,

NWNL How do you depend on the forest?

MARTIN GITHOGA We depend on the Mau Forest for the “loose trees” – those that have been felled. It is not the poor people who felled the trees. The rich are the ones that sawed the timber. So, if you see a stump, it has already been taken out by the rich. But then, for example, I go there and take the stump. I don’t take the whole tree. That has already been removed by other people – the rich who have the sawing machines and sending the cut trees to the capital.

SMALL-HOLDERS LIVES in the FOREST

NWNL Do your family and your children live with you here on this plot of land?

MARTIN GITHOGA I have them in town. And I don’t live here in the forest either. I just come here and work for a day, and then I go back. I don’t stay.

NWNL How do the people living here cook their meals? If they don’t have wood for fuel, can they survive?

MARTIN GITHOGA Here in the Mau Forest, we can’t survive if we can’t cook. So, since we don’t have electricity here in the forest, we use the loose stumps, the trees.

NWNL How much time does it take each day to collect firewood for cooking?

MARTIN GITHOGA You can go for about 3-4 days..

NWNL Is there anything else you want people who are not from Kenya to understand?

MARTIN GITHOGA Yes, we have seen the problem of the rain. There was plenty of rain. Now, due to the destruction of trees, rainfall is very low. But we see that problem is not only in the Mau. It is in other places. They have the same problem that we have. So, it’s a global pattern change.

DOWNRIVER CONSEQUENCES

NWNL Are those who live here aware that because the trees here are gone, it makes a difference in the rivers below the Mau Forest and below Lake Nakuru – all the way to Lake Victoria.

MARTIN GITHOGA There is a consequence of the felling of trees here. We are seeing it. The volume of water has been very small.

NWNL But, are you aware the consequences to downstream users who are many, many, many kilometers away.

MARTIN GITHOGA Yes, it is not only here. However, 1.5 million people, here living in the Mau, need food. They need shelter. They need to get through their day-to-day lives. The children are learning at school. I’m not fighting in the government. I am a very, very, very downward person, but people they don’t come here knowing the truth of the matter.

As Kenyans, we don’t want to talk of, or stir up tribal sentiments. We want to help each other – the Kalenjin, the Kikuyu and others because all of us are at the end of they day, we are Kenyans. So, we need to work in conjunction with the government of Kenya.

NWNL So, in summary, you’re happy to have this forest taken care of, replanted and reforested as long as the government takes care of you and your families your friends and your communities?

MARTIN GITHOGA Yes, our communities are the citizens of this place.

NWNL Martin, that is a good conclusion to this conversation. Thank you and best of luck to you and your children.

Posted by NWNL on June 4, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

Mau Forest Farmers versus Trees Mara River Basin