By Wanyama wa Chebusiri
Mount Elgon
Clan fighting over land in western Kenya has forced a community back to the caves where their ancestors lived.
More than 10,000 members of the Ndorobo clan have abandoned their farms for a more traditional life in Chepkitale Forest.
"We've never had peace in Chebyuk and we shall never go back"
After 36 years, they say the civilisation they were promised at the foot of Mount Elgon has been elusive and bloody clashes with the Soy clan have intensified over the years.
The Ndorobo and Soy form the semi-nomadic Sabaot community: the Ndorobos used to live in highlands and their Soy brethren in the lowlands.
In 1971, the government made the highland Chepkitale Forest a nature reserve - which under Kenyan law means people are no longer allowed to live there - and convinced the Ndorobo clan to swap their hunter-gatherer life style for a settlement in Chebyuk.
Anger
In the subsequent land allocation - done in three phases over the last three decades - the Sor clan claim they have lost out.
Anger at the most recent allocations has claimed the lives of some 140 people in fierce clashes since late last year.
But Ndorobo civic leader Elisha Chelashew says his clan have never been made welcome in the Soros' lowlands.
"We've never had peace in Chebyuk and we shall never go back," he says.
"The government should recognise the Ndorobo people as the original owners of Chepkitale reserve," says Mr Chelashew.
He argues that if their ownership is not recognised "the government is interested in animals more than human beings".
However, life has not been a bed of roses for all Ndorobo members trying to revert to traditional ways of life.
Up in the forest there are no basic necessities such as medicine, shelter and schools.
The area is fairly inaccessible: it takes two hours to cover 25km in a powerful four-wheel drive car from the main trading centre of Kapsokwony to the cave dwellings.
Cold
Those finding the sudden change difficult are the elderly, women and children - who are coming to the forest for the first time.
"They are finding it very strange to share the cave with livestock"
Hundreds of children have had their educational dreams cut short.
Pregnant women face risky births and the only available medicines are herbs from the forest.
Masai Kipchumba, 68, admits life is especially hard for youngsters used to better living in the settlement.
"Children are really finding it difficult here, there are no beds, no mattresses, no clothes - no nothing," the father of 10 says.
"It is also very cold here in the forest especially at night. They are finding it very strange to share the cave with livestock, but for us adults, it is life as usual."
Young men have to learn to survive by hunting and gathering like their forefathers.
"Down there in Chebyuk I was a farmer," says 22-year-old school-dropout James Kipsisai.
"I used to grow tomatoes and onions for commercial purposes but I am now helpless. It will force me to revert to traditional life of hunting and gathering so as to make ends meet."
Emotive issue
The women have to queue for hours to have their maize flour milled with a traditional hand mill known locally as rekoreko.
"We use this rekoreko because we have no alternative," says mother of six, Rose Cheptoo.
"It takes two to three hours to have to grind two kilos of maize; it also requires a lot of energy to make this rekoreko rotate," she says.
"We also have no vegetables and all we use are wild leaves known a soyandeti."
Already human rights organisations such as the Kenya Human Rights Commission are petitioning the government to intervene and have the Ndorobos settled elsewhere.
Commission official Beatrice Kamau says the forest conditions are a humanitarian time bomb which the government should address before it explodes.
However, the Kenyan authorities say Chebyuk's current controversial land allocation has been suspended to pave the way for dialogue between Ndorobo and Soy members.
Western provincial commissioner Abdul Mwasera says he believes this move will facilitate the smooth return of the Ndorobos to their farms.
But this dispute is symptomatic of emotive land problems across the country dating back to independence, which successive governments have failed to address.
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