We risk paying fees to be taught our Ogiek language, say locals

Members of the Ogiek Community in Eldama Ravine, Baringo County have expressed fears of paying fees to learn the language claiming they had already lost both their culture and language.

They blamed the situation on the present and past regimes for evicting them from their ancestral homes within the diverse Mau forest. Mau Forest is a forest complex in the Rift Valley of Kenya.

“When we speak, we identify ourselves as Ogiek. We know ourselves as Ogiek, but we don’t know that language. We have already lost both our language and culture,” Sally Kemboi said.

They spoke to the Star at Mumberes village in Mlango Moja, Eldama Ravine subcounty on Tuesday.

Kemboi attributed the situation to the Ogiek’s community having been scattered after they were forcibly evicted from Maji Mazuri, Sabatia, Sgere, Narasha, Kiptuge and Koibatek forests within the expansive Mau forest complex.

The first eviction happened in 1988 during the late President Daniel Moi’s reign all through the current regime.

“Houses were torched when we were evicted making our lives as the Ogiek community miserable. We lost all our livelihoods and became homeless due to the evictions,” Kemboi said.

A spot check by the Star established that some of the evicted members of the Ogiek community had become squatters with the majority in parts of Baringo County and Nakuru counties. They live squalor lives as either bandsmen in other people’s farms or literally beggars.

“Some parents died of stress after failing to fend for their children and themselves while others starved to death due to hunger,” Kemboi said.

Kemboi said there were culture that they no longer understood stating they would soon just remain with the name Ogiek after losing both their culture and language.

“Some members of the Ogiek community now live in Kamara, Fisoi and Rongai in Nakuru County while others are in parts of Eldama Ravine of Baringo County and its environs. Most of our children never went beyond Form four due to the unbearable poverty situation,” she said.

Kemboi said for the few Ogiek’s who own small parcels of land, women beg for their husband’s portions to grow vegetables among other crops for subsistence consumption.

John Sang, 80, said he together with his five daughters and four sons work on tycoons’ farms to earn a living.

“My children earn Sh200 per day in the farms while I earn Sh500 monthly for grazing 20 cattle and five sheep,” Sang told the Star.

Sang’ together with his nine children squat at Kiptenden in Mlango Moja.

“We have nothing to celebrate about because we were forcibly evicted from our ancestral homes in Koibatek forest. So, we have nothing, we live as squatters. Life is hard, we are suffering,” Sang said.

Haki Nawiri Afrika organisation trained the residents on agroecology as a way of helping them achieve food security and sovereignty.

They also took the locals through various best farming practices including carbon bed preparation and donated a variety of indigenous seeds to members of the Ogiek community.

The organisation's founder Leonida Odongo said the food sovereignty project was intended to nurture agroecology transition in indigenous people’s territories.

“We have partnered with Kariobangi Social Justice Centre with a focus on the politics of food since the Constitution of Kenya 2010 clearly recognises the right to food,” Odongo said.

Odongo said they targeted the Ogiek community with the project that is currently running in Machakos, Siaya, Nairobi and Baringo counties due to their minority nature and the fact that they suffer from the effects of their subsequent evictions from their ancestral land, Mau forest complex.

“The situation has equally impacted on their food systems given that the majority live as squatters with nowhere to call home, let alone land to grow crops for food,” Odongo said.

She said the non-profit making organisation has four pillars; food justice, climate justice, gender justice and youth engagement.

“Today we are at Mumberes in Eldama Ravine, Baringo County training the Ogiek community on agroecology for food security and sovereignty. We came to this community through the initiative being supported by the Land is Life Organisation,” Odongo said.

Odongo said Ogiek was one of the forest-dwelling communities in Kenya which have gone through a lot of oppression.

“From the conversations, we have heard from the community, we are introducing agroecology to the community and they were able to share with us different cultural aspects of food, herbs and they are committed to nature,” she said.

She said they weren’t introducing something new, but re-enforcing the relevance of their indigenous knowledge, and practices and how these can help address the crisis of food insecurity as well as climate change, particularly by strengthening local biodiversity.

“…and from the Ogiek people, the voices that we heard from them was that ‘you can’t have food sovereignty when you don’t access to land. This is a community that has been dispossessed of their land. They are living as squatters despite the fact that they are Kenyans,” Odongo said.

Odongo said it was just the beginning of working with the Ogiek community.

“We observed an intersectionality of food injustice alongside other injustices. As an organisation, we are seeking support to continue with this initiative particularly working with the indigenous people who are equally minorities,” she said.

She said they were committed to strengthening indigenous people, looking at seed aspects, not just seeds in terms of plants, but animals too.