Weak laws threaten to deplete Kenya’s environmental wealth

Politics and policy

Women carry water in Turkana County. Inset top, Sand harvesters in Lake Victoria. Bottom, A man cuts logs at Sabor Forest in Keiyo. Residents have asked authorities to intervene and protect the water catchment area. Photos/FILE 

By IPS

In Summary

• Scramble for scarce land and rain-fed agriculture has led to more and more farmers encroaching on water catchment areas.
• Lack of a national policy on natural resource management is leading to the depletion of natural wealth.
• But while Kenya may have in place at least 90 pieces of legislation on how to manage its natural resources, experts say the country’s excess of legislation is weak and inadequate to meet the challenge of sustainably managing this.

Each season, Peter Gichangi a vegetable and arrowroot commercial farmer who owns four hectares of land in Nyeri County, Kenya’s Central Province, cultivates his crops near the Nduyi River.

“Although every now and then the Nduyi River bank bursts, flooding the farm, the loss is small compared to the good harvest and financial gains during good weather patterns,” Mr Gichangi says.

But he is just one of a significant number of small-scale farmers who have taken to commercial farming in water catchment areas, according to the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.

In Kenya, smallholder farmers account for at least 75 per cent of the total agricultural output, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

“Due to the scramble for scarce land and because agriculture here is rain-fed, we now have more and more farmers encroaching on water catchment areas,” Nancy Mumbi, a government agricultural researcher in Central Province, said.

She says this is especially prevalent in the Rift Valley, which is considered the country’s breadbasket and Central Kenya.

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Ms Mumbi says the government is attempting to put a stop to the practice by imposing “fines of up to Sh52,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both.”

However, Ken Muchai from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources warns “the lack of a national policy on natural resource management is leading to the depletion of natural wealth.”

“We may not have any lions in the next 20 years, we are losing 100 lions per year to human-animal conflict,” he said.

He says that the draft Natural Resources Development and Management Policy 2012 will address these issues.

“And many other sectoral policies are already under review to facilitate conservation and management of natural resources.”

But while Kenya may have in place at least 90 pieces of legislation on how to manage its natural resources, experts say the country’s excess of legislation is weak and inadequate to meet the challenge of sustainably managing this.

Kevin Kinusu, a climate and energy advocacy officer at Hivos, a Dutch organisation for development, said that the weak laws have proved ineffective in the face of the country’s capitalist economy.

“Market forces have overlooked the importance of sustainable management of natural resources. Due to the current craze to develop real estate, wetlands in areas in Nairobi County, parts of Kiambu County and other parts of the country have been converted into settlements,’’ Mr Kinusu says.

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