Skip to content
Menu
REDD-Monitor
  • Start here
  • About REDD-Monitor
  • REDD: An introduction
  • Contact
REDD-Monitor

Urgent appeal against the forced eviction of Sengwer/Cherangany communities in Kenya

Posted on 26 December 201319 June 2020

Forest Peoples Programme has put out an appeal against the forced eviction of 6,000-7,000 indigenous people and other communities from the Embobut Forest in Western Kenya. FFP, together with communities and partners on the ground are asking organisations to sign on to the appeal.

The appeal asks the Kenyan Government to withdraw the threats of eviction and to sit down with the communities to find a way ahead that respects their rights and protects the forests. While the planned evictions are not part of a REDD project, they may be part of the government’s plans to raise REDD money. It is an example of “fortress conservation”, an approach that fails to respect the rights of people living in forest areas and fails to protect forests.

The solution proposed by the indigenous peoples and communities living in the Embobut Forest is simple:

The key is to: (i) recognise the right to remain of those willing to continue living in a way which protects the forests and glades17, and (ii) resettle those who do not want to live in this way.

Forest Peoples Programme’s appeal is posted here in full. Background documents are available on FPP’s website. Organisations that want to sign on to the appeal should write to Ville-Veikko Hirvelä [email protected], and Justin Kenrick of Forest Peoples Programme [email protected].

Urgent appeal against the forced eviction of Sengwer/Cherangany communities in Kenya

 
Forest Peoples Programme, 23 December 2013

We are deeply concerned by the imminent forced evictions that threaten the forest life and forest homes of the 6,000-7,000 indigenous people and other communities in Embobut Forest in the Cherangany Hills (Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya).

For many years the Government has been trying to move the indigenous inhabitants of Embobut off their land by burning their homes. They have done this in the name of a fortress conservation approach which seeks to remove local people from their lands. As IUCN and all pre-eminent conservation organisations now acknowledge, such an approach only ever makes the environmental situation worse, and adds a human rights disaster to the environmental crisis. The new President has taken what at first appeared to be a new approach: he came in November and promised them a small amount of money to move, however now that it is clear people are refusing to move, this is being followed up with this threat of imminent eviction.

We appeal to the Government and Parliament of Kenya and to all responsible for guarding and securing the fundamental rights of such communities, to prevent this threatened forced eviction of the indigenous communities and other people at Embobut, which would violate their human rights and international law. According to the 2010 Kenya Constitution (Article 63) and international law, the indigenous Sengwer / Cheranagany have the right to not be moved from their ancestral territories unless they have given their free, prior and informed consent.

It would violate their human rights, and their right to the customary sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity, if they are forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands and deprived of their own indigenous means of subsistence integral to their forest life, identity, their characteristic sources of food, water, health and shelter and to their cultural survival as a people.

In summary, the Kenyan Government has been engaged in persistent attempts to evict the indigenous inhabitants by burning their homes. This happened as recently as May 2013, despite an interim injunction secured in the High Court against the burning of Sengwer homes. The most recent attempt to move them from Embobut Forest took place when the President visited Embobut on November 15th 2013 and promised 400,000 Kenyan shillings per family to what he called the ‘Evictees’ to move out of the forest (this money would secure 4 cows or 1 acre of land in Trans Nzoia). Then on 12th December 2013, the Elgeyo Marakwet County Commission, Mr. Arthur Osiya, said that “The Evictees were given the cash and have no reason to continue staying in the forest. By January 3rd 2014, we expect all squatters out of that forest” (Saturday Nation, December 14, 2013, page 22).

However, the Government is treating all residents of Embobut Forest as if they are internally displaced people who need to be moved. While those non-indigenous residents who are living in Embobut as a result of landslides elsewhere or who have moved in to use land to grow crops are very willing to receive the money and move, the indigenous inhabitants of the forest refuse to move. They want to live here in peace and make sure that no harm comes to the forest where their ancestors are buried.

We appeal to the Kenyan Government to stop these threats of unlawful evictions and to sit with the residents of Embobut to address the two critical issues: (1) that those recent arrivals and others who want to move elsewhere be supported to do so, but (2) that people’s right to live on, and care for, their ancestral lands be respected.

Please send your organisations sign up to this appeal urgently to:
Ville-Veikko Hirvelä [email protected]
and Justin Kenrick of Forest Peoples Programme
Justin Kenrick [email protected]


PHOTO Credit: President Uhuru Kenyatta handing out cheques to evictees from Embobut Forest, November 2013.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SUBSCRIBE!

Recent themes
30x30
Natural Climate Solutions
WWF's conservation scandals
Aviation and offsetting
Conservation Watch

Recent Comments

  • Ben on Response from Kurt Kaiser, Director of Compass Carbon: “Your article was of great concern to us”. And some questions for Kaiser from REDD-Monitor
  • James Mewa Kamaya on Papua New Guinea’s Forest Authority cancels Mayur Resources’ Kamula Doso REDD project
  • Benedikt von Butler on Switzerland’s offsetting deal with Peru excludes REDD. It will still not reduce emissions
  • Chris Ibe on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow
  • Xindia on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow

Recent Posts

  • REDD-Monitor is moving to Substack
  • REDD Project in Brazil Nut concessions in Madre de Dios, Peru finally started paying communities a decade after the project started. “I’m still lacking money,” says one community member
  • REDD-Monitor’s top ten posts in 2022
  • The harsh reality of 30×30: The EU is keen to allow extractivism in the 30×30 target – but not Indigenous Peoples’ territories
  • Human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples and the proposed “30×30” target

Recent Comments

  • Ben on Response from Kurt Kaiser, Director of Compass Carbon: “Your article was of great concern to us”. And some questions for Kaiser from REDD-Monitor
  • James Mewa Kamaya on Papua New Guinea’s Forest Authority cancels Mayur Resources’ Kamula Doso REDD project
  • Benedikt von Butler on Switzerland’s offsetting deal with Peru excludes REDD. It will still not reduce emissions
  • Chris Ibe on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow
  • Xindia on Bar Works: The return of Renwick Haddow

Issues and Organisations

30x30 AB 32 Andes Amazon Boiler rooms California Can REDD save ... ? Carbon accounting Carbon Credits Carbon Offsets CDM Conservation-Watch Conservation International COP21 Paris Cryptocurrency Deforestation EcoPlanet Bamboo Evictions FCPF Financing REDD Fossil fuels FSC Green Climate Fund Greenpeace Guest post Human rights ICAO Illegal logging Indigenous Peoples Natural Climate Solutions NGO statements Plantations R-M interview REDD and rights REDD in the news Risk RSPO-Watch Safeguards Sengwer The Nature Conservancy UN-REDD UNFCCC Verra World Bank WRM WWF

Countries

Australia Bolivia Brazil Cambodia Cameroon Canada China Colombia Congo Basin region Costa Rica DR Congo Ecuador El Salvador European Union France Gabon Germany Guyana Honduras India Indonesia Kenya Luxembourg Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Netherlands Nicaragua Norway Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Republic of Congo Sierra Leone Spain Sweden Tanzania Thailand Uganda UK Uncategorized United Arab Emirates USA West Papua
©2025 REDD-Monitor | Powered by SuperbThemes!