Kenya Jubilee 2000 Coordinator attacked at environmental protest

Kenyan Jubilee 2000 Co-ordinator and ecologist Wangari Maathai suffered serious head injuries when security guards beat her as well as supporters and journalists when they arrived at Nairobi forest to plant trees on the 8^th January.

Professor Maathai, who also co-ordinates the Greenbelt Movement, was hospitalised after being hit on the head with a truncheon as the guards, hired by unidentified real estate developers, charged at the group. One foreign journalist was hit on the hand with a club, and a car belonging to another reporter was damaged by the guards, some of whom were armed with stones and bows and arrows. Protestors claim police who were monitoring their action stood by and watched as the guards attacked.

On the 14^th January, the Attorney-General officially apologised to Professor Maathai over the beating. He also conceded that the court order, being used by real estate developers, claiming ownership of the Karura forest was ambiguous. He ordered investigations into the assault. Following his statement, police on the 15^th January went to arrest the private security guards, but found they had disappeared.

Professor Maathai has been involved for some time in fighting developers attempts to destroy the forest of Karura, on the northern outskirts of Nairobi. She has vowed to fight corrupt developers by tirelessly replanting trees. The destruction of the forest has provoked widespread condemnation and generated debate on the government's practice of quietly allocating prime land to key supporters at little or no cost.

Professor Maathai and the Kenyan Jubilee 2000 movement have focused public attention on the link between deforestation and Kenya's debt. Kenya pays out a quarter of the value of annual exports in debt servicing - more than $4 for every $1 received in grants. As a result of pressure to earn hard currency to pay debts, deforestation has increased in Kenya with an annual loss of 3,000 hectares of forest each year. In August 1998, the Kenyan Jubilee 2000 Campaign launched in the slum areas of Nairobi and received widespread media attention.

Last month some fifty riot police confronted Maathai and supporters as they arrived at the 1,000 hectare eucalyptus and cypress forest. The forest nestles amid some of the Kenyan capital's most affluent suburbs, and just beside the headquarters of the UN Environmental Protection Agency (UNEP).

Swathes were quietly cut through the forest earlier this year, with the public learning of the destruction only when ecologists descended on it in October and set fire to the developers' equipment. Work stopped, and the Green Belt movement planted 15,000 saplings, aided by youngsters from a neighbouring shanty town.

The Jubilee 2000 Coalitions around the world have responded by sending letters of protest to President Moi and the Chief Justice. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General joined the condemnation of the attack. They have demanded that the Kenyan Government protects the right to peaceful protest in Kenya and have called for the company and guards involved in the assault to be prosecuted.

Ann Pettifor, Director of the Jubilee 2000 Coalition in the UK said: “Wangari Maathai has been a great friend to the British campaign and a tireless campaigner for economic and environmental justice in Kenya. We were shocked at the news of this vicious attack. We hope the apology by the Attorney-General will lead to further action to ensure the safety of Wangari and the vital work that she is doing for the people of Kenya.”