The Ogiek community who were evicted from Mau Forest in 2009 have urged the National Lands Commission (NLC) to kickstart verification of list containing names on of affected persons.
Through the Ogiek Independent Council of South West Mau Forest, Konoin, the community submit to the commission a comprehensive community register of individuals displaced during the 2009 South West Mau Forest evictions.
“This submission is done in absolute adherence to the landmark judgment delivered on July 27, 2018, by Justice J.M. Onyango at the Environment and Land Court (ELC) at Kericho (ELC Petition No. 5 of 2017),” said the council.
The council termed the submission a historic milestone in the long journey toward justice, constitutional compliance, and sustainable environmental conservation for the indigenous Ogiek community of Konoin, Bomet County.
In the ruling, the Court declared that the forceful 2009 evictions violated the community’s fundamental rights to property (Article 40), equality and freedom from discrimination (Article 27), and inherent human dignity (Article 28) [keelc/2018/2030].
To remedy these historical injustices, the Court ordered the NLC to work alongside local chiefs and the Ogiek Council of Elders to formally compile a register of genuine victims and identify alternative land for their structured.
According to the council, the ruling aligns with international jurisprudence, notably the landmark African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights decision (Application No. 006/2012), which recognized the Ogiek as indigenous custodians of the forest and established that environmental conservation can never be used as a legal justification to evict indigenous populations from their ancestral domains.
“The Ogiek community is not an enemy of the environment. We are, and have always been, the natural guardians of the Mau Forest Complex. Our ancestral lifestyle inherently preserves the water tables, combats illegal logging, and guards against commercial encroachment,” the council stated.
The community said it was unfair to be excluded from climate resilience initiatives and preservation of Kenya’s critical water towers given that they hold generations of ecological knowledge.
The council now wants verification of the register to commence as soon as possible and pave way for resettlement program as directed by the Environment and Land Court [keelc/2018/2030].
They further want NLC to engage the Ogiek Independent Council in a co-management framework to protect the South West Mau Forest ecosystem for future generations.
