Members of the Indigenous communities in Kenya on Tuesday petitioned the office of the Attorney General, demanding the immediate implementation of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights rulings.
The more than 40 representatives of the Ogiek and the Endorois peoples held peaceful processions in Nairobi, demanding justice and reparations, including the return of their ancestral lands and respect of their rights to free, prior and informed consent over any actions taken there.
The groups further demonstrated against evictions from the Mau Complex, which they consider their ancestral lands, even as they called for inclusion in conservation efforts, including the carbon credits offsets.
A senior administrator from the Attorney General's office Hillary Kyengo received the petition.
"We were recently evicted from Mau, houses were razed down and we wonder why the government has not put measures in place to ensure justice is served to the Ogiek community," Daniel Kobei, the executive director of the Ogiek Peoples' Development Programme, said.
After 14 years, the groups say the Kenyan government continues to deny the Endorois peoples’ return to their ancestral home and reparations for their forced eviction recognised by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“At the same time, in the Mau Forest, the government continues to expel and deny reparations to the Ogiek peoples, contrary to judgments of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights beginning in 2017. Since November 2, 2023, the Kenyan government has been carrying out forced evictions in the Mau Forest complex.
“The ongoing forced evictions have so far affected more than 700 people from the Ogiek community, half of whom are women and children. Their homes, schools, and belongings have been burned and demolished, and the rainy season makes their situation even more vulnerable,” they say in the petition.
Anne Tuna, a member of the Ogiek, said failure to implement the Arusha ruling has greatly affected them as it has denied them the right to own land and derailed their development as a community.
They added that they have lost animals, homesteads and community members, and their children's education was disrupted, thus aggrieved.
"We are agitated and, therefore, today decided to bring this petition, amplify and question this delay [in implementing the court rulings]" David Tuitoek added.
On May 26, 2017, the African court ruled that the Ogiek are an indigenous people of Kenya and that their eviction from the Mau Forest violated their rights.
On June 23, 2022, after 13 years of litigation, the court delivered a judgment on reparations, ordering the Kenyan government to, among other orders, pay the Ogiek Sh157 million as collective compensation for material and moral damages suffered; return their ancestral lands in the Mau Forest to collective title within two years and to commence a dialogue and consultation process with the Ogiek and any concerned parties about any concessions and/or leases granted over the land.
These, among other orders, are yet to be implemented.
The Endorois, in partnership with the Minority Rights Group and the Center for Minority Rights Development, in 2003 filed a case before the African Commission, which in November 2009 rendered a landmark ruling to the effect that the Kenyan government had violated their rights.
The ruling was adopted by the African Union Heads of States Summit on February 2, 2010, in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
The Commission directed the Kenyan government to recognize rights of ownership to the Endorois and restitute their ancestral land; ensure the community has unrestricted access to Lake Bogoria Game Reserve and surrounding sites for religious and cultural rites and for grazing their cattle; and pay adequate compensation to the for all the loss suffered.
The government was also required to pay royalties to the Endorois from existing economic activities and ensure they get jobs in the reserve.
The groups on Tuesday demanded that the government implement the decisions immediately and in their entirety as directed by the regional mechanisms.
They said non-implementation has had harmful effects on them, ranging from poverty to environmental degradation and the loss of cultural practices.
“We recall Kenya’s obligations under international human rights law, which has been incorporated in the Constitution. We call on the Kenyan government to promptly implement the decision, publish compliance reports, consult the communities, and report regularly to the African Commission,” the petition said.
In January last year, the Commission on Administrative Justice called on the government to honour the rulings.
CAJ chairperson Florence Kajuju regretted that the Ogiek had been subjected to brutal evictions from their known habitat on the justification of protecting forests from human encroachment.
"It is documented that the community has coexisted with the forest ecosystem from time immemorial," she said at the time.