YALA SWAMP -A “Living Museum” of Biodiversity

The Yala Swamp is a vast wetland region (over 200 square km) which cleans and filters waters that flow into Lake Victoria from two major rivers. It has been called a “Living Museum” because it provides critical habitat for endangered fish species that have disappeared from Lake Victoria itself. The critically endangered Sitatunga Antelope finds refuge among the swamps’ papyrus. Bird life International classifies the Yala Swamp among Kenya’s 60 “Important Bird Areas,” and a 2005 World Bank report concluded that the significance of the region’s biological diversity “cannot be stressed strongly enough.”

For centuries, thousands of families have depended on the wetland for clean water, fishing, grazing and agricultural land, and the papyrus that they weave into mats, baskets and thatch roofs. ” “

The Yala Swamp conflict started in 2003 when regional government authorities granted a 25-year lease for rice cultivation to Dominion Farms Ltd, a subsidiary of Dominion Group of Companies based in Edmond, Oklahoma USA. Authorities approved the company’s Environmental Impact Assessment specifically for rice irrigation in a 2,300 hectare-area (about 12% of the Yala Swamp territory). But almost immediately Dominion began building irrigation dikes and a weir, airstrips and roads, and announced plans to build a hydroelectric plant and a major aquaculture venture, including fish farms, a fish processing factory and a fish mill factory, all of which could damage a fragile ecosystem far beyond the designated 2300ha Dominion wants control over 65% of Yala Swamp for its expanded “integrated project.” Some of this area is privately owned by hundreds of families. Some of it is used communally, including the species-rich waters of Lake Kanyaboli which is critical for food security in the region. Action Aid Kenya and the Kenya Land Alliance say the company has in effect privatized the lake and public roads, blocking lake access to over 200 fishermen and impeding access to schools, markets and health clinics. Residents say their protests have been met forcibly with arrests and teargas.

Although no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had been approved for these additional Dominion enterprises, they were well underway in early 2006 when scientists in the Kenya Wetlands Forum undertook a “Rapid Assessment of the Yala Swamp Wetlands.” The scientists’ report raises hundreds of unanswered questions about Dominion Farms’ potential impacts on human health and the environment. Likely impacts cited in the report include altering the flow of Yala River, contamination of soils through oil leakages and spillage, pollution of the wetland ecosystem, loss of grazing land, lost of pristine fauna and flora through chemical use and aerial spraying, rising incidences of water- and vector-borne diseases, and social unrest. The report urges Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority to immediately close down all Dominion Farms activities and require new and independent EIAs to be conducted for each separate project proposed by the company.

Many homes have been flooded by the dominion groups of company leaving women and children homeless in the name of development

Concerns from the community

1) That the management of Dominion Farms Limited have deliberately chosen not to engage or consult the community on its project implementation and development yet they are seriously being affected directly.

2) That Dominion Farms Limited being a multi national company is hell-bent on forcefully taking away ancestral land without owners consent nor following legal procedures, which is a serious basic human rights violation.

3) That the company (Dominion Farms Limited) has adopted unorthodox means of using threats through proxies, intimidation, police arrests (on trumped up charges ranging from incitement to violence to malicious damaged to private property ) and bribery as a means of silencing and coercing indigenous people to give away the only livelihood

4) That our leaders (politicians, church leaders and government officers) have failed us totally in the course of this struggle and are instead working in cahoots with the multinational to disposes community off their land and the only source of livelihood.

5) That the local press has been compromised and has adopted partisan approach in reporting the Yala Swamp issues to the favour of Dominion Farms Limited to the disadvantage of the aggressed (community).

6) That the project is being carried out without an independent approved environmental Impact Assessment report done by National Environmental Authority (NEMA).

7) That aerial spraying done by the company on the farms using DDT has severe health and environmental impacts with some of the community members already affected.

8) That blockage of river Yala and Lake Kanyaboli and Yala swamp will deny indigenous people access to water (for domestic use and for our animals) and grazing land which will have a very serious economic impact on our livelihood.

9) That clearing of the Yala Swamp papyrus which is the home to many wild life species including endangered ones like statunga and papyrus gonolek and breeding grounds for many birds is of great concern.

10) Clearing of the papyrus will also have negative side economic effects on the indigenous since they have always used these plants to make mats for sale and use locally.

11) Dominion group of company once more have use the government to detain 278 head of cattle’s belonging to 40 members of the community at Siaya police station, the owners are to be charged with trespass. The situation at which the animals are kept at the police station is worrying and already some deaths have been reported.

How can we help?

Friends of the Yala Swamp, a coalition of residents and organization sand community Initiative Action Group-Kenya thinks that Kenya authorities need to be lobbied to protect people’s livelihoods and the Yala Swamp wetlands, as they are obliged to do under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

On behalf of the above organizations we are appealing for ideas on how the community can be assisted in protecting their livelihoods.

Chris owalla

Community Initiative Action Group –Kenya (CIAG-K)
P.O.BOX 9034, 40103
KISUMU
+254-57-2025714
+254-722-901170
grassrootlink@yahoo.com
ciag-kenya@hotmail.com

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Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:19:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: chris owala
Subject: Yala swamp a problem of inverted leadership