Dennis Odunga
8 August 2007
Nairobi — Honey and dogs are all an Ogiek man needs to get himself a wife.
Uncommon as it may look, the Ogiek have for years shunned the conventional lifestyle and have stuck with customs and practices that enable them blend with nature.
Unlike the common trend where many communities regard cattle and money as the acceptable form of paying bride price in Kenya, the Ogiek have had a strong attachment to honey and dogs.
But that cultural practice is now facing challenges after the community was evicted from Government forests, paving the way for inter-marriage with other tribes that prefer cows and cash as bride price.
The community evicted from Kipkurere, Cerengony, Kelboi and Tinderet forests in Nandi South and Uasin Gishu districts values honey, not only as food but also as medicine.
The dogs come handy in their hunting expeditions.
Mr Joshua Kuto, 50, who is among the Ogiek who have pitched camp on a road reserve at Cherobon village in Nandi South District, says dogs help in their hunting and gathering practices, which are the community's main economic activities.
"We usually traverse various bushy sites in the vast districts to hunt and gather fruits. We do this with the help of dogs," he says.
Following the eviction, they now gripe over the missed daily grapes and scarce honey.
Dogs as dowry
Mr Kuto says that in the forest life, a family could receive as many as 10 gourds of honey and an equivalent number of dogs as bride price.
Elders Benjamin Chelelei and Kimengich Ng'etich insist that the value of the bride price had to be determined by the ability to satisfactorily serve the interests of the bride's family.
Now with the changing lifestyle, most families are settling for less.
"While in the forest, we relied on honey, meat and blood from wild animals and herbs for our food. Dogs came in quite handy in hunting the animals we needed for food," says Mr Ng'etich.
Mr Chelelei, 52, adds that honey was the most treasured of all. He says three types of honey were available when they lived in the forest.
Whereas the natural honey was for multi-purpose use, the ngunuk type, which is harvested from beehives placed on top of trees, was used for medical purposes.
It was added to some herbs and used to get a patient to either diarrhoea or vomit in case of stomachache.
The gosomek type is available from bees that make their honeycombs underground. This, he says, is best for curing flu and helps in quick development of teeth among children.
However, due to inter-marriage between Ogieks and neighbouring communities, the former have started rearing livestock which they receive as bride price. This has with time added livestock blood to their diet.
Milk and beef
"Our daughters nowadays sneak into the neighbouring villages and in the process marry men from neighbouring tribes who could present cattle as bride price," said Mr Ng'etich, adding that this has prompted them to start feeding on milk and beef as well.
The Ogiek admit that they have been adversely affected by the change of lifestyle. However, they are slowly adapting to the life, away from a place they termed their ancestral land.
The Government evicted about 390 families from the forests following an outcry from environmentalists that most forests in the country were being depleted through human encroachment.
Some of the community members were settled at Ndungulu in Uasin Gishu District but the land set aside for them was inadequate.
As a result, some were left stranded with promises from the Government that they would be resettled on alternative land.
Mr Kuto says they now rely on manual jobs to raise money for food and pay school fees for their children.
Besides the "harsh weather", some of the community members still shun conventional medicine in favour of traditional herbs, which were available in plenty when they lived in the forest.
"I have a natural phobia for injections since I have never been injected since I was born. I was born and brought up in the forest and our medicine has been herbs and honey," said Mr Ng'etich, 69.
He says apart from the natural herbs, few stings from bees in the forest could heal some diseases.
The Ogiek admit that although they have expert herbalists, all the community members virtually know the variety of herbs available in the forests that could cure most of their diseases.
The community members now want the Government to allow them to return to the forests or offer them permanent residence outside the forest.
Their return, they say, will enable them revert to their original lifestyles which they cherish.
Recently, Rift Valley provincial commissioner Noor Hassan Noor dashed hopes of resettling Ogiek squatters in their former homes when he said the Government would not resettle anybody in forest land.
Successful life
The PC said having land was not the only sure way to a successful life and instead asked the squatters to explore other income generating activities.
"Water catchments, land under forest cover and the general ecosystem must be safeguarded against any form of depletion. Therefore, it's absolutely necessary to conserve our forests," said the PC.
He assertively said that the Government would only consider purchasing land elsewhere to resettle squatters and told them to forget the issue of returning to the forest.
But, the Ogieks say they are willing to cope with new life only if the Government identifies the alternative settlement for them.
"Why are we being treated as if we are not Kenyans? It's not our mistake to have found ourselves in the forests. We were born there and we don't know any other home," said area resident Samwel Laldim, 39.
He added that during their stay in the forests, they used to conserve the forests and could not allow anyone to cut trees for charcoal or any other purpose.
This, they say, is because they knew trees were homes for the bees and destroying them also meant flowers, which are sources of nectar for bees, could be ruined as well.
Honour promise
And as the community members wait for the Government to honour its promise to either resettle them elsewhere or allow them to return to the forests, they seem hard-pressed to change their attitude to suit their new-found environment.
They have to refocus their energy to other economically viable enterprises and adapt to the emerging living standards in their temporal home, in the hope that one day, they will have a place to call home.
The small gardens next to their makeshift structures in Nandi are a clear indication that they can venture into agricultural activities.
That could reduce their over-dependence on dogs and honey.
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