National Land Commission directs State to conclude Ogiek resettlement
The National Land Commission (NLC) has urged President William Ruto’s administration to swiftly resolve the long-pending and contentious issue of resettling all members of the Ogiek community.
The Commission directed the government to conduct a fresh verification of Ogiek members, registering and identifying those who have not benefited from any resettlement programme.
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According to a determination dated March 15, 2024, the outgoing NLC commissioners instructed the Ministries of Lands and Interior to scrutinise the existing register and separate those already allocated land from those still unserved.
The Lands ministry was further tasked with identifying suitable land for resettling all verified Ogiek members who have never benefited from a settlement scheme.
“The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development… shall identify appropriate land(s) to resettle the Ogiek community who have not benefited in any settlement scheme,” the determination states.
The hearing panel comprised Commissioners Prof James Tuitoek, Esther Murugi, Tiyah Galgalo and Hubbie Al-Haji. The Commission’s six-year term for most members, including chairperson Gershom Otachi and vice chairperson Gertrude Nduku, expired on November 14. Galgalo and Murugi each have one year left.
NLC adopted a comprehensive list of 25,019 Ogiek members from the Mau Forest Complex, a register that excludes Ogiek living in Mt Elgon and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.
The Commission also advised the Kenya Forest Service to consider granting community user rights for medicinal extraction, beekeeping and religious activities within the Mau Forest, in line with the Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016.
Between 2017 and 2021, the Commission received multiple claims from Ogiek clans alleging forceful eviction from ancestral lands, including the 2009 removals from the Mau Forest.
Parallel cases have been pursued in Kenyan courts, Parliament and before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
In 2017, the African Court ruled in favour of the Ogiek, finding that the Kenyan government had violated their land rights. The state was ordered to compensate the community with over Sh157 million and to identify, demarcate and title their ancestral land in consultation with them.
The Mau Forest is the ancestral home of the Ogiek, an indigenous community of about 20,000 members, 15,000 of whom inhabit the greater Mau Forest Complex, a land mass of roughly 400,000 hectares.
The Ogiek are divided into clans, with their own language, social norms and subsistence practices. As a hunter-gatherer community, they have for centuries depended on the Mau Forest for residence and livelihood.
In October 2009, the Kenya Forestry Service (KFS) ordered the eviction of the Ogiek from the Mau Forest within 30 days. Despite knowing the community had occupied the land since time immemorial, the government refused to recognise them as an indigenous population requiring protection.
The following month, the Centre for Minority Rights Developments (CEMIRIDE) and Minority Rights Group International (MRGI), acting on behalf of the Ogiek, submitted a complaint to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which later referred the case to the African Court in 2012.
The Court ordered Kenya to reinstate restrictions on land transactions in the Mau Forest as a provisional measure to prevent further harm while the case was under examination.
On June 23, 2022, the Court further ordered Kenya to compensate the Ogiek for material and moral prejudice suffered, and to take legislative and administrative measures to identify, delimit and title their ancestral land, granting them collective ownership.
Where concessions or leases had already been granted, the Court directed Kenyan authorities to consult with the Ogiek and other parties to reach agreements on returning land or continuing operations through leases, royalties or benefit-sharing.
The Court also ordered Kenya to fully recognise the Ogiek as an indigenous people and to ensure their effective consultation in all development, conservation or investment projects on their land.
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