The Ogiek community has asked development partners and donors to Kenya to stop climate financing until their settlement issue is resolved.
The community, which has been living in different forests in the Rift Valley, accused the government of attempting to quickly evict them from Mau Forest Complex because it has been promised billions of shillings in carbon credit funds.
The community claimed that the government, through the Kenya Forest Service, had deployed armed forest rangers and other security units to their settlement areas in Sasumwani, Narok county, and Kiptunga in Nakuru to intimidate and scare them away.
Ogiek council of elders chairperson John Sironga alleged that there were armed officers stationed at the two settlement areas within Mau ready to evict the community in total disregard of court awards allowing them to stay.
“The officers have destroyed our property worth thousands of shillings, pulled down cowsheds and sheep pens and we do not know where our livestock are now,” he said.
Sironga, who spoke to journalists in Nakuru, said there were existing conservatory orders barring the state from ejecting the community from Sasumwani and Nkareta areas of Maasai Mau Forest issued by Justice Lynette Omollo of the Environment and Lands Court.
On November 10, 2023, the ELC in Nakuru extended the order until December 19 (on Tuesday) when hearing of a petition filed by the community and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights protesting the evictions.
Sironga said they do not understand why the government continues to oppress the Ogieks despite three court awards from the High Court in Nakuru, ELC in Nairobi and the African Court on Human and People’s rights in Arusha, Tanzania.
“All the three courts could not have ruled in our favour if we are in the forest illegally. This is our ancestral home and we have no place to go,” he said.
Sironga said the Ogiek were the first Kenya foresters because they have been living within the natural resources since time immemorial while the government only took over about 60 years ago and later gazetted them.
“We do not want to be given the entire Mau Forest Complex, all we are asking is for the government to set aside land and settle community members living within the six corners of Mau,” he said.
Ogiek council member Joseph Lesingo said government raided their villages in 1989 and demolished schools thereby forcing illiteracy among the minority community.
He said due to illiteracy and their minority status, the Ogiek community has no representations at any legislative level of the government.
“The community has no defenders. We have no representations at any decision-making table and that is why the government is making decisions and policies that are oppressing us,” Lesingo said.
He asked the government to respect the rule of law and settle them according to the judgments by the three courts.
In a landmark judgment in May 1017, The African Court in Arusha found the Government of Kenya in violation of the community’s right to life, property, culture, development and religion.
Later in July 2022, the same court awarded reparations to Ogiek for its sufferings from discrimination and other injustices.
