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| A view of the forest canopy from Lirhanda hill |
With a present area of approximately 230sqkm, Kakamega Forest is endangered by the densely populated rural counties of Kakamega, Vihiga and Nandi. Of the mentioned area, half is still indigenous forest with the remaining being converted to planted forest as encroachment and human activities affect its vast greenness.
How was the area then?
It is said that Kakamega forest is a remnant of the ancient Guineo-Congolian rainforest that once spanned the African Continent. It is not human activity that largely contributed to the forest retreat but as scholars argue, drier climate with humans later taking advantage of the openings. Before the Bantu, there existed a people in Africa, pygmies among.
With the Stone Age (that started 40,000BP) period ended 5500 years ago, it gave way to Neolithic farmers who migrated to the region (It is around the time Bantus started spreading East, Central and South Africa.). Iron Age of about 5,000 years ago lead to an increase in numbers for they had potential not to only burn but to slash huge chunks of old trees, for it needed really volumes of wood to smelt. And the fire opened up more Savannas alike, putting humans back at the position of affecting the forest retreat.
But by around 1600BP the Atlantic Central Africa as modern East Africa was devoid of people too. Whether they were, pestilences and risks of living near forests drove many away. The slave trade and expansions that followed may have sent communities further away from the West into the interior (the forests) as those with an Egypt origin equally (hid) in the Nile valley. Much as swamps and forests were breeding grounds of hazards, they also largely provided for man as he aimed for the hills near them.
Present lower half of Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza regions in Kenya are part of the areas the tropical rain forest extended to. With good soils for farming, well drained lands of highs and lows and vast grasslands, the inhabitants of old would mix both nomad and pastoral life before pressure mounted and domesticated life was the solution out.
Of the Kenyan People, the area mentioned is majorly a Bantu-Nilote zone with present ongoing migrations of others as the Cushites to the area. The main Kalenjin dispersion took place at Mount Elgon after having arrived in North-Eastern Uganda as the Bantu created a major population around the great Lakes of East Africa, 3000 years ago, same time supposedly. Those that were easy did amalgamate one another as hostile ones pushed each other away.
Lake Victoria was on a low ground. Mount Elgon as the name, high. In between forest. Life excelled on low and high lands, till people were to move and satiate population needs. And other physical features as River Yala and Nzoia that influenced migrations upwards from the lake.
Mount Elgon and its foothills has experienced deforestation and occupation recently. The highland nilotes, Nandi, would go North-East to the hills of Nandi, not thick enough to risk their lives and cattle as beasts that roamed the forests. This was as the Luhya (and Luo) of the lake (low) region aimed for the scattered hills before further population pressure (favoured by warmer climate) lead to the cutting and tilling of new grounds.
Most of Vihiga County was of the pioneer forest guava plant in support of the ancient floods that dried up and now a forest would rise up were it not for human occupation in the area. That Kabiri forest in Vihiga County, an extension of the tropical Kakamega forest, to Kaimosi and stretching to the foothills of Maragoli hills would in the next 1000 years be thickly knit. Which will be the case if agroforestry is encouraged as many households now have trees in their compounds and on the other hand challenged for population is still growing and space is needed.
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