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KHRC
++ URGENT ACTION ++
Kenya
Human Rights
Commission
P.o.
Box 41079
Nairobi.
Tel.
254-2-574998/9
, /576065
Fax
254-2-574997
email: Khrc@africaonline.co.ke
Urgent
action
08.04.2000
Imminent
violent displacement and eviction of the Ogiek Forest People in
Tinet Forest area of Molo in Nakuru District, Rift Valley Province,
Kenya.
Proposed
Action
Please
write a letter to the President of Kenya, Mr. Daniel . T. arap
Moi, asking him to take all the necessary measures to stop the
imminent eviction and harassment of the members of the Ogiek
community and their supporters, to ensure that action is taken
against those responsible for
and involved in harassment of members of the Ogiek
community. Further, ask that the settlement process of the Ogiek
is speeded up and court cases filed by the Ogiek are heard
expeditiously. Please send a copy to the Chief Justice - Mr.
Bernard Chunga, Attorney General- Mr. Amos Wako and Chairman of
the Land Review Commission - Mr. Charles Njonjo. Do not forget to
add your address and name at the top of your letter.
Background
The
Ogiek people are a minority forest dwelling community residing in
the Mau forest and Mt. Elgon forest. In 1996, their population was
estimated at around 20,000 people. There are four main clans that
form the Ogiek:
Tyepkwererek
Clan which occupied the forests South-Eastern of Mau forest from
Lake Nakuru and southwards in the areas of
(a) Sururu forest- named after the
Ogiek traditional chief Sururu Olekiwanja,
(b) Likia forest- named after clan inhabitant known as
Likyo,
(c) Logoman forest - named after plants which are common in
the area called Logoma,
(d) Teret (Tiritap Suswek) forest.
Morisionik
Clan occupied the forest areas of
(a) Nessuit (Nesoit- a sacred stone in Nessuit after which
it was named,
(b) Elburgon(Lembega) forest,
(c) Marioshoni forest- named after the occupying clan
Marisionik,
(d) Keringet forest.
Kipchor’Ngwonek
Clan- occupied forest areas in the West and North of Mau forest
(a) Molo ( Mololo) forest,
(b) Bararget forest,
(c) Keringet forest.
Ogiek
OP Tinet (OM) - Occupied forest areas in the South-West Mau forest
as follows-
(a) Kerisoi(Kuresoy),
(b) Tinet forest,
(c) Ndoinet forest,
(d) Kiptagich forest,
(e) Karantit forest,
(f) some parts of Olenguruone
The
Mt. Elgon Forest group occupied the forest area around Chepyuk .
N.B.
The Ogiek people like other Kenyans had a well defined communal/customary
tenure based on the clan/family holding of land. The unfortunate
fact is that today the above mentioned areas do exist but the
Ogiek have been pushed in the last forest belt of the former
mighty Mau and Mt. Elgon forest. Their effort to hold on the
disappearing forests is being challenged by the state which has
systematically degazetted the forest areas and allocated big
parcels of former forest lands to the ruling elites, in addition
to licensing logging in the forests to the level of total
deforestation.
The
Ogiek have lived in the highland forests since time immemorial.
This have been their natural habitat even when Kenya was first
incorporated as a British Colony in 1895. However, the process of
territorial seizure and loss of Ogiek forest land began in 1939
and continues today. Since 1939, there have been attempts by
successive political regimes in Kenya to remove the Ogiek from
their ancestral homelands, often forcibly.
These
governments-both colonial and post-colonial have tried to
obliterate the Ogiek land security by treating them as lawless
trespassers in the forest lands in question. But, the Ogiek people
have continuously struggled to avert total dispossession and
possible danger of imminent extinction, by pursuing their
territorial security and ultimately their survival through seeking
affirmative action of protection with regard to access to and use
of their forest land and other natural resources therein[2].
In this pursuit the Ogiek today are able to identify their
homelands in both in Mau and Mt. Elgon forests.
Reasons
for the Hotline Intervention
Kenya
ratified not only the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights but also the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, and is therefore obliged by international
law to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of the Ogiek people
to their settlement and natural habitat as a forest dwelling
minority. The State must be open about the grievances of
marginalized people like the Ogiek and formulate and implement
environmental law, and policy framework that take into account the
security of currently or potentially disadvantaged groups. Other
than the forest department being used to threaten the Ogiek
community with imminent eviction, it should instead carry out
integral programmes with a range of strategies and responses to
ensure their territorial security and, ultimately, their survival.
The
extreme sloppiness and lack of political will to implement the
resettlement of the Ogiek within their natural habitat have denied
them the realisation of their economic and social rights. The
following are some of the noticeable violations in the Ogiek case:
-
the
right to guaranteed security of tenure by way of an assured
right to reside and settle,
-
the
right not to be dispossessed from one’s home and surrounding,
-
the
right to settle in a healthy, safe and clean environment,
-
the
right to natural resources,
-
the
right to self-expression in matters of evictions, and
-
the
right of gender equality in all dimensions of land and housing
process outlined above.
The
Ogiek case also brings out the following as observed failures of
state responsibility:
-
Insecurity of home, land and
person: The unwillingness of the
Kenyan state to give security of tenure to the Ogiek forest
dwellers that have been forced by circumstances to live
without title; and inability to protect them from forced
evictions in 1939-1941, 1977, 1980-1981, 1985 and now
threatened with another imminent eviction.
-
The abuse of law: Inability
to adopt legislations that do not contain loopholes and are
not open to misuse. Or where effective legislations exist to
protect the rights of the majority of residents, the inability
to implement them.
-
Inability to control market
forces: The government has
totally exhibited inability to control the ravages of
unbridled market speculation of land and especially forest
lands, thereby forcing the Ogiek people to live in
increasingly marginal and insecure areas.
-
The prevalence of forced
evictions: Inability to control
forces that lead to evictions coupled with inability to halt
forced evictions or rein in forces of state(police,
administration police and general service unit) that promote
direct violence in carrying out forced evictions through use
of brutality.
-
Inability of the Kenyan government
to recognise the inherent critical role of the Ogiek in
conservation of their forest habitat through their cultural
patterns that protect and sustain the forest cover.
-
Non-compliance with national and
international legal human rights instruments:
The Kenyan government has continued to abrogate its role to
fulfill constitutional duties and international legal human
rights obligations that protect the Ogiek housing and land
rights. Cumulatively the continued prevalence of this
phenomena point to a failure of governance that leads to
exclusion, dispossession and violent evictions becoming
endemic to our society.
Lastly,
as long as the Ogiek people have no guarantee to their natural
habitat, their human rights will continue to be violated. In order
to avoid a further intensification of violence, it is important to
pressure the Kenyan authorities at this moment to protect the
Ogiek community against harassment and imminent eviction by
speeding up the formalised settlement process.
End
of the Action: 08.04.2000
Addresses: Daniel. T. arap Moi
Office of the President, Harambee House
P.o. Box 30510
Nairobi.
Tel: 227411
Fax 337340
Amos Wako
The Attorney General
State Law Office
P.o. Box 40112
Nairobi.
Tel: 227461
Bernard Chunga
The Chief Justice
Law Courts,
P.o. Box 30187
Nairobi.
Tel: 221221
Fax 333449
Charles Njonjo
The Chairperson
Land Review Commission
c/o Ministry of Lands& Settlement
P.o.
Box 30450, Nairobi.
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