KISSAWAI (SABOTI), 2 August 2010 (IRIN) - Since March 2008, Beatrice Tamaska Kae has lived under a tarpaulin with her seven children in a camp after their eviction from a government forest in Trans Nzoia West district in western Kenya.

"It is hard to get used to life in a camp when you had a lot of space before; during the dry season life is slightly better because it is not cold but now with the heavy rains and the cold, it is pure misery, however closely we sit or sleep, we cannot get warm in this weather," Kae said on 29 July at Teldet primary school, in Kissawai location of Saboti Division.

Kae's is one of 283 families (2,750 people), comprising mostly ethnic Sabaot, evicted from a forest at the foot of Mt Elgon in March 2008.

Local officials estimate that tens of thousands of Sabaot were evicted from forests, with some moving in with relatives and others seeking alternative land but those who ended up on the government-owned field next to Teldet school had nowhere else to go.

"I broke my foot as I sought payment for work I had done [harvesting a farmer's potato crop] when a sack of potatoes fell on my ankle; since then survival has been difficult; we only eat when my children go out to do manual labour in other people's farms and homes," Kae said. "It has been months since we got any food donations; I do not like being dependent on others, I just wish the government would show us alternative land where we can grow our own food."

Kae said two of her children who go to school often missed class when she failed to raise the money to pay teachers employed by the Parents-Teachers' Association (PTA) to supplement government-hired teachers.

Eviction

According to Daniel Sambrumo, chairman of the forest evictees' camp at Teldet primary school, forest guards and other government officials took advantage of the post-election violence in early 2008 to throw out people who had been living on government trust land or in the forest.

"In the midst of the post-election violence and the clashes over land between the Soi and Ndorobo [Sabaot clans], people fled their homes in fear. It was then that askaris came to those homes and burnt houses, crops in the fields and other property," Sambrumo said. "In fact in some cases they carried away iron sheets that had been used for roofing."

He said the families at Teldet opted to pitch camp near the school so their children could continue going to class.

"Life here is hard but we had no alternative; we have received aid from Handicap [International] who helped build two five-door toilets and we have also benefited from medical aid from MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières] and the Samaritan's Purse," Sambrumo said. The government, through the Kenya Red Cross Society, he said, had also distributed food among the forest evictees - the last time in April.

The women walk long distances in search of firewood; once they collect a sizeable amount, the men help ferry it on bicycles or donkey carts to shopping centres and other urban areas for sale," he said.

Compensation

Asked why they stayed in the camp for more than two years, Sambrumo said: "The government does not consider us displaced like other IDPs; we are referred to as forest evictees because we were removed from government land. This status has caused us problems because it is not clear whether or not we are entitled to compensation.

"But government officials who have visited the camp have told us we will get the 35,000 shillings [US$440] that other IDPs have been paid in other parts of the country; we are hopeful we will get this money. If not, we hope the government will find us alternative land."

Wilfred Kinyua, the district commissioner for Trans Nzoia West, told IRIN on 30 July that the Teldet forest evictees had been brought to the attention of the Ministry of Special Programmes, which is charged with handling IDP affairs.

Kinyua said he was aware of plans to either buy alternative land for the evictees or pay them so they could buy their own land.

"The government has not forgotten these people, we have informed the concerned officials of their presence in Teldet and I know that something is being done about them," Kinyua said.

Too many pupils

The school, established to cater for about 800 pupils, has 1,147, more than 300 from the families of forest evictees.

"Right now we have a serious case of congestion in the classes and we have had to employ more teachers to cope with the numbers," Isaac Saima, deputy head teacher, said.

"We have 13 teachers deployed by the government and we have employed seven at the PTA level whom we pay 1,000 shillings each per month [$12.50] but it is sometimes hard to raise the money because most of the pupils from the evicted families cannot raise any money. What the school needs is more teachers and support to keep all pupils in class."