Ogiek case (East Mau
Forest-KENYA)
09.10.2000
CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS -
The Ogiek people are on of the last remaining forest
dwellers and the most marginalised of all indigenous
peoples and minorities in Kenya. The Ogiek are
traditional honey gatherers, who survive mainly on
wild fruits &roots, wild game hunting and traditional
bee keeping and are therefore friendly to their
environment on which they depend.They were nicknamed
"Dorobo" a derogatory term given to them
by their Neighbors, the Maasai.The correct term used by
them is "Ogiek" which literally means "the
caretaker of all plants and wild animals".The Ogiek are
uniquely specialized people intimately related
to a particular ecosystem. They are incapable of
retaining their essential characteristics, if that
ecosystem is destroyed . In the beginning of the last
century their ancestral lands were taken from
them in a manner little different from the seizure of
the Native American hunting grounds in todays
U.S.A, but with the difference that no Ogiek Reserves
were retained . To this great injustice has been
added the effects of the forest policy that has
progressively and on immense scale replaced their
natural forests with conifer forests that are , to the
Ogiek, totally sterile and unproductive, useless for
either bees or wild animals . Ironically and
tragically, the employment offered by the forest
department makes them work for their own extinction.
Every hectare of plantation trees they plant is
a hectare of their birthright lost. East mau forest
which is a home of about 5000 people of Ogiek
origin and is a haven of biodiversity. It has rivers
feding the Lakes Nakuru, Baringo and Bogoria to
the East and a number of rivers drain to Lake Victoria
and the Maasai Mara. In 1991 the Kenya
Government initiated a settlement scheme, which
originally was understood to solve the constitutional
land problem of the Ogiek. But later it turned to be
political and unsustainable.To politicians and
senior government officials, the scheme was a political
arena, whereby their promised their people
land in return of votes. Given that the population of
Ogiek is politically not important, when it comes
to voting, and since they have no leader in a western
sense, the Ogiek were marginalised. Then the
Land was taken away from the Ogiek and the people were
regarded as squatters in their own
ancestral lands. Luckily the scheme had no legal base
and this prompted the Ogiek to challenge it
using constitutional means. In 199 the Ogiek Welfare
Council ( then Ogiek Welfare Management
Committee) decided to arrest the trend by taking the
matter to the High Court of Kenya , where it
was granted Leave in a constitutional court. After
three months the Ogiek were further granted an
injunction stopping the government and its agents from
further demarcating and allocation of the
disputed land until the matter is resolved in court.
Since that time the Ogiek have been under pressure
from political quarters to disobey the orders and
sometimes the harassment in form of arbitrary
arrests of the ogiek Plaintiffs in the suit. However it
has become apparent that the government is using
politicians and senior government officials to carry
out the illegal exercise with little or no regard to
the
rule of law. It was at this juncture that the Ogiek
welfare council has vowed never to rest until justice
is done.The O.W.C has gone further to file a court
contempt proceedings against the perpetrators of
the vice.This now bring a total of two pending cases in
the high Court at Nairobi. The case has been
listed for argument on 9th Nov.2000. before a full
hearing date is set.
NB East Mau Case is Different from Tinet Case(South
West Mau).
As for now the Government has plans to legalize the
scheme by degazetting the disputed area
although the High court stopped all activities .
Ogiek Welfare Council is a non profit organization
whith the main task to protect the interests of the
Ogiek community in Kenya . The O.W.C would like more
moral and material support to counter the
Governments evil plans .
For any clarification please contact Sang J .
KO.W.COGIEK WELFARE COUNCIL
or ECOTERRA Intl.
