On January 16th, over 60 armed Kenya Forest Service (KFS) guards raided two villages and shot into a fleeing crowd, killing one man and seriously injuring another. In the weeks since, armed KFS guards have destroyed fences, stolen livestock and burned dozens of Sengwer homes. This tactic has been used periodically since the 1980s, but last month the local government announced intensified efforts to clear out Sengwer communities.
While the government claims to carry out these actions in the name of conservation, there is recent precedent to give the Sengwer hope. In May 2017, thanks to ongoing efforts from our partners at the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights declared the government of Kenya guilty of evicting the Ogiek Peoples from the Mau forest. The Court determined that the government improperly used conservation as a justification for eviction. Amnesty International recently shared an urgent action to send appeals to the Kenya Forest Service, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Ambassador of the European Union Delegation to Kenya.
In addition to raising awareness on this urgent issue, Land is Life’s Kenya-based Regional Coordinator, Jemimah Kerenge, recently met with Sengwer leaders on how to connect them with our regional network and support their efforts to develop an enhanced land management plan through mapping and zoning of ancestral lands. These efforts build upon last year’s Africa Regional Workshop and our ongoing commitment to build stronger alliances and networks among Indigenous Peoples in the region and raise awareness on their threatened lands, territories, and cultures.
Visit our Indigenous-Led Grantmaking site to learn about recent work to promote women’s rights by the Ogiek Peoples Development Program and preserving cultural values by Enkishon Indigenous Initiative along with dozens of other grassroots Indigenous-led efforts supported by Land is Life.