This archive report was first published on 1 July 2020.
Published on July 1, 2020, the Elgeyo Marakwet County Sustainable Forestry and Tree Growing Act, 2020, aims to safeguard the Elgeyo escarpment from human interference. The county administration has enacted this law to prevent the destruction of the delicate ecosystem and catastrophic landslides.
The law prohibits any form of crop farming, livestock keeping, or settlement on the escarpment. Any individual who violates this provision commits an offence and may face imprisonment for up to 12 months, a fine not exceeding Sh500,000, or community service not exceeding 2000 man-hours on sustainable forestry and tree growing activities.
The county cited the need to stem perennial and deadly landslides on the Elgeyo escarpment, which have left more than 200 people dead in the past decade and displaced thousands of others. The area in question is defined as being between the upper and lower Spencer lines, which were demarcated by colonial administrator William Spencer during colonial times.
Elgeyo Marakwet records indicate that more than 50,000 households live on the escarpment, with 4,000 families inhabiting high-risk zones that have fault lines which experience landslides perennially. The Act now wants the conversion of that area into a county forest, including mandatory reforestation with indigenous tree species.
Use of fires as tools of cultivation on private and community land has also been prohibited.
