Ogiek want NLC to open a register of its members

Members of the Ogiek community in a protest march in Nakuru Town on June 29, 2019. PHOTO | FRANCIS MUREITHI

By  FRANCIS MUREITHI

What you need to know:

  • The community complained that the land agency has failed to implement the court ruling which has been pending for the six years.
  • According to the ruling, the Ogiek were to be settled in Mariashoni and Nessuit in Molo and Njoro sub-counties.

More than 6,000 members of the Ogiek community living in Nakuru County want the National Land Commission to open a register of its members as ordered by the High Court.

Through the Ogiek Council of Elders, the community complained that the land agency has failed to implement the court ruling which has been pending for the six years.

RESSETLEMENT

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“On March 17, 2014 the High Court in Nairobi directed the National Land Commission to open a register of the members of the Ogiek community within one year and identify land for the settlement of the community but so far the commission has not implemented the directive,” said the Ogiek Council of Elders National Chairperson Joseph Towett.

According to the ruling, the Ogiek were to be settled in Mariashoni and Nessuit in Molo and Njoro sub-counties.

The Ogiek community had also petitioned the Arusha-based regional court to intervene on its behalf over gross human rights violations.

The regional court ordered the government to take appropriate measures to remedy all the violations established and to inform the court of the measures taken within six months.

INTERVENE

However, despite the court ruling, the National Land Commission is yet to implement the court ruling. Mr Towett urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene on behalf of the community.

“The Ogiek now seeks the intervention of President Uhuru Kenyatta because, as a community, we believe we are being denied justice,” said Mr Towett.

The community suggested that they should be settled on a 16,000 hectares piece of land in Nessuit and Mariashoni areas.

“Ogiek community wants to protect the dwindling natural resources and we can only do that if we are allowed to live in our ancestral habitat,” said Mr Towett.

The community has been seeking justice for the past seven years in Kenya and across the borders with little success.

“The eviction of the Ogiek in Mariashoni Location, Elburgon in Molo Sub-County and Nessuit location in Njoro Sub-County in the Mau Forest Complex is a contravention of their rights and this has unfairly prevented them from living in accordance with their culture as farmers, hunters and gatherers in the forests,” read a past High Court ruling.

The community was forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands in Mau Forest.

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