By Daily Nation
The Nyayo Tea Zone estate perched between the Mau and Olpusimoru forests will be cleared in the ongoing second phase of restoring the Mau Forest Complex, Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya has said.
Mr. Natembeya, speaking in Nakuru, said the tea estate had encroached on the water towers and started farming in gazetted forests.
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“There is this issue of the Nyayo Tea Zone, with people talking about the cutline and boundaries. Now the position is that [zone]was planted when there was a lot of encroachment on Olpusimoru forest, a national government forest,” he said.
When people were moved out, he said, the tea was only planted to show the boundary and it was not meant to show that the Maasai Mau forest was now available for settlement
“Even when you go to the ground now, both the canopies for Maasai Mau and Olpusimoru forests are the same. So we are saying that if indeed we were to plant tea, actually it is supposed to benefit the people who were there before the ballooning of the group ranches into the forest. Those are the people who are supposed to benefit from the Nyayo Tea Zone as they protect the Maasai Mau Forest,” he said. Read more>>
