Commission on Administrative Justice has asked the government to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and implement the court’s decision on the welfare of the Ogiek Community.
The commission said the court decision represents a significant step towards protecting the rights of indigenous communities and it’s crucial that it be fully implemented.
“We, therefore, call upon all the duty bearers to demonstrate their commitment to human rights and take immediate and concrete steps to implement the court’s decision,” commission chairperson Florence Kajuju said.
The government is expected to table the status of implementation to the African Court by June 2023.
Kajuju noted that all the concerned parties had indicated their willingness and commitment to see full implementation of the judgment within their respective mandates.
“The ball is now in our court to ensure that the judgment is fully implemented,” she said.
She made the remarks during a consultative forum on the progress made towards implementation of the African Court’s decision regarding the Ogiek Mau indigenous community which was delivered in 2017 and the reparation judgment in 2022.
During the last consultative forum held on January 18, 2023, the commission convened government agencies to chart the way forward for the Ogiek community in view of the court’s judgment.
The court ruled that the rights of the Ogiek People had been violated contrary to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The judgment concerned the right of the Mau Ogiek to have what little is left of their ancestral lands in the forested Mau Escarpment recognised as their property.
The Ogiek community is among the indigenous peoples of Kenya, alongside the Sengwer, Yaaku Waata, Sanya and Endorois.
Their estimated population with reference to the (2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census report is 52,000 and they mainly inhabit the Mau Forest Complex and the Mt Elgon Forest.
Evictions led the Ogiek to pursue justice both domestically and regionally at the human rights system of the African Union.
In November 2009, the Ogiek of the Mau Forest filed a complaint against the Government of Kenya at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights which was escalated to African Court on Human and People’s Rights in 2012.
In June 2022, the African Court delivered a reparations judgment that enumerated steps that the Government of Kenya must take to compensate the Ogiek of Mau Forest for human rights violations suffered
In the early 1990s, the government committed to resettling the Ogiek community but it has never happened.