Endorois to get back their land, thanks to AU court

• Ruling praised as a major victory for indigenous people across the continent

Job Kiprotich was only four years old, in 1974, when his family was ordered out of their ancestral land. Today, 36 years later, he is celebrating justice after a court ruling that the government should return their land.

The African Union has approved a decision by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), which found the Kenyan Government guilty of violating the rights of the indigenous Endorois community, by evicting them from their land to make way for a wildlife reserve.

The decision that Mr Kiprotich and his community get back their land was approved by the African Union Assembly of the Heads of State on January 3, in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

President Kibaki was at the assembly.

The ruling, which has been described variously as a major victory for indigenous peoples across Africa, especially by the Human Rights Watch, if upheld could open a floodgate of suits against forced acquisition of land by the government and its agencies including local authorities, Railways Corporation, Kenya Wildlife Service and the military.

The ruling creates a major legal precedent by recognising, for the first time in Africa, indigenous peoples’ rights over traditionally owned land and their right to development.

Traditional land

The commission had ruled, in May 2009, that the Endorois’ eviction from their traditional land in Lake Bogoria for tourism development violated their human rights. But this could not be made public before being ratified by the AU Heads of State.

The African Commission accepted the Endorois’ evidence that they have lived in the area surrounding Lake Bogoria since “time immemorial” and the lake was the centre of their religion and culture, with their ancestors buried nearby.

The government evicted the pastoralist community, between 1973 and 1986 but it was in 1998 when the Centre for Minority Rights Development (Cemiride) began to challenge their eviction in Kenyan courts. They lost the battle.

Cemiride founder Korir Singoei termed the decision “landmark” revealing that the commission now requires Kenya to take steps to return the Endorois land and compensate them within three months.

“This ruling is good for every Kenyans,” said Mr Singoei, who represented the Endorois, told the Nation, adding: “The law that treats some communities as children, unable to own land, is a colonial relic that needs to be changed.”

Currently 25 African states, including Kenya, have acknowledged the court’s jurisdiction. Kenya did so in 1992.

The Endorois have sometimes been classified as a sub-tribe of the Tugen. In the 1999 census, they were counted as part of the Kalenjin group, made up of the Nandi, Kipsigis, Keiyo, Tugen and Marakwet.

The commission found that Kenya was in violation of Articles 1, 8, 14, 17, 21 and 22 of the African Charter and recommended that the state recognises the rights of ownership to the Endorois and restitute their ancestral land.