Botswanan officials detained and questioned two Kenyan Okiek hunter-gatherers, Survival International said on Monday.
”They were then questioned for an hour on who they had met, who had invited them, and if they had anything to do with Survival International,” said the organisation’s Miriam Ross in a statement.
After holding a press conference in Gaborone, Kiplangat Cheruyot and Mpoiko Kobei were detained at the Zimbabwean border by Botswanan officials looking for ”the two Kenyan passport holders”.
The two had travelled from Kenya to talk to Kalahari Khoisan now living in resettlement camps after being evicted from their ancestral lands.
After being released the men were dropped in the area between the Botswana and Zimbabwe borders. Upon arriving in Zimbabwe police told them they were looking for ”two escaped Kenyans”, said Ross.
At the Gaborone press conference Cheruyot was quoted as saying: ”Kenya fought its hunter-gatherers, mountain and forest people for decades, but the government realised its mistakes and gave indigenous hunter-gatherer people like ours title deeds for land.
”They helped the people to own and manage the wildlife resources in their areas, and draw the benefits of exploitation. I am sure Botswana can learn from our experience.”
The Okiek are an ethnic and linguistic group based in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, according to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. In 2000 the ethnic Okiek population was estimated to number 36 869. – Sapa