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Coalition Launches
Online Campaign for Kenyan Indigenous People
Kenya's Ogiek in danger of losing their forest
home
Media release
For immediate release
NEWARK, N.J.,
January 3, 2001 — A international coalition of human rights
and environmental organizations announced the launch today of
an online campaign to urge the Kenyan government to protect the
Ogiek, an indigenous tribe that lives in Kenya's Mau Forest and
is fighting to remain in their ancestral home.
A group of
concerned organizations, including the U.S.-based Digital
Freedom Network (DFN), the Kenya-based Rights News and Features
Service, and the Kenya Land Alliance, has set up a Web site for
the Ogiek at http://www.ogiek.org.
The site includes a one-click Web form that will generate protest
letters to be sent to Kenyan officials, a brief explanation of
the issues surrounding the Ogiek, an in-depth report on their
situation, and recent news.
"Since indigenous
peoples often lack political clout, they make easy targets for
governments. With the Ogiek.org site, we hope to raise public
awareness about the Ogiek's situation and level the playing field
so that the Kenyan government will respect their rights," said
Bobson Wong, executive director of DFN, one of the partner organizations
behind the site.
"The time
has come for the world community to say no to such wanton contempt
of a indigenous community that hardly does harm to the forest.
The Mau Forest is not a gift of the Kenya government but a natural
gift from God and no government or individual should destroy it,"
said John Kamau of Rights News and Features Service.
The Ogiek
(pronounced oh-GEE-ik) are an indigenous hunting and honey-gathering
people that have lived in the Mau Forest for hundreds of years.
Kenya's government is forcing them out of the forest, insisting
that the area is environmentally protected under the country's
Forest Act. But Kenya is allowing powerful logging companies to
cut down trees in the forest, and much of Kenya's protected forests
have been illegally sold or given to developers. Meanwhile the
Ogiek, who selectively hunt animals that are not endangered for
food, pose no environmental threat.
For years,
Ogiek representatives asked President Daniel arap Moi and other
Kenyan officials to take action to protect them. When these requests
proved unsuccessful, the Ogiek went to court in 1997 to stop Kenyan
officials from surveying and allocating the Ogiek's land to others.
The Ogiek's lawsuit eventually went to the Kenyan High Court,
who dismissed the case in March 2000.
The Ogiek
are now urging people to lobby Kenyan officials to stop logging
companies from cutting down trees in the forest and to pass legislation
that would give them the right to inhabit Mau Forest and traditionally
conserve the forest.
The Digital
Freedom Network (DFN) promotes human rights around the world by
developing new methods of activism with Internet technology and
by providing an online voice to those attacked simply for expressing
themselves. DFN creates Internet applications to fight censorship,
acquires technology tools for other activists, launches Internet-based
campaigns on behalf of human rights, and serves as a technical
resource for activists worldwide. DFN's Web site is http://dfn.org.
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