Elders protest attempts to subvert order to settle the Ogiek in Mau » Capital News
NAKURU, Kenya, Feb 12 — The Ogiek community has accused the government of using illegal tactics to lock them out of their ancestral home in the Mau Forest Complex.
Community leaders claimed that the government was hurriedly validating the settlement of thousands of people in Kapsita, Ngongogeri, Likia, Sururu, Saino, Kiptagich, Ndoinet, and Tinet, among other areas, despite the revocation of their titles by the Paul Ndung’u Land Report.
Ogiek Council of Elders Chairperson, John Lobolo, said this was one of the government’s attempts to avoid complying with two judgments issued by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha.
He further alleged that the government was rushing to bring in settlers from Bomet, Kericho, and Transmara into the Mau Forest Complex, despite them not being part of the Ogiek minority community.
Addressing the media in Nakuru, Ogiek leaders from six counties stated that the government had requested three months, which expired on February 11, to file a compliance report on the implementation of court orders regarding settlement and reparation.
However, instead of fulfilling its obligations, they claimed, the government used the time to frustrate the judgment by validating illegal settlements.
“Validating illegal settlements and registering new entrants who are not members of the Ogiek community will take away the very land that we were awarded in three judgments—one by the High Court in Nairobi in 2014 and two by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2017 and 2022,” said Lobolo.
Opposing the government’s decision to subdivide the land into five-acre parcels per person, he emphasized that the court had ordered a single title deed for the entire community land, which would help the aboriginal community preserve its culture and traditions.
Unrepresented
Representing the Ogiek community from Kericho, Francis Maritim accused the Lands Principal Secretary of attempting to establish a task force committee, led by Nakuru County Commissioner Lyod Kibaara, on Mau Forest Complex settlement—without any Ogiek representatives.
“The Ogiek people are at the center of the Mau settlement issue. They are the original forest residents, yet the committee, which is yet to [be] gazetted, does not have a single representative from the community,” he said.
Fred Ngusilo from Narok questioned why the government appeared keen on settling people in East Mau Forest while ignoring Ogiek community members, homeless for over a year and two months since their eviction from the Mau Forest Complex.
The community leaders urged the government to remove intruders trooping into trading centers in Naruashoni, Nessuit, and Tinet, to secure land in Mau.
“There are fraudulent individuals in various counties surrounding Mau Forest who are demanding registration fees from unsuspecting members of the public, falsely promising them land in the forest,” said Maritim.
The community elders called for inclusion through public participation and the speedy implementation of court orders to end decades of suffering, which began in the 1980s when the government started encroaching on their land under the pretext of settling the Ogiek.