Kenya’s Ogiek win land case against government
May 26, 2017
The Ogiek people, evicted from the Mau Forest since colonial times, have won a historic battle in African land rights.
Ngongongeri, Nakuru County, Kenya – Kenya’s Ogiek, an indigenous minority of hunters and gatherers, have won a historic case against the Kenyan government, close to a decade after they began their legal battle.
The African Court on Human and People’s Rights, a continental court established in 2006 by African countries, on May 26 delivered its verdict in Arusha, Tanzania – ruling in favour of the Ogiek and recognising their right to Kenya’s Mau Forest, as their ancestral home, and their role in protecting it.
The court ruled that the Kenyan government had violated seven articles of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, of which Kenya is a signatory, and is intended to protect basic freedoms and human rights.
The verdict recognises the Ogiek’s indigenous status and their right to reparations from the Kenyan government for the suffering they have endured through forcible evictions. It recognises the Ogiek’s “strong attachment to the forest”, their legal right to live on the forest land, their freedom to practice their traditions and deemed evictions to be disproportionate to conservation aims. The Kenyan government in court said it accepted the judgment.
