By Chris Lang The European Union has scrapped its US$35 million Water Towers Protection and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Programme in Kenya. The project had been suspended since January 2018, after a Kenya Forest Service guard shot and killed Robert Kirotich, an Indigenous Sengwer man. The shooting took place during a raid in Embobut…
Category: Kenya
Kenya’s Community Land Action Now: “A win-win solution for forests, human rights and the EU WaTER Project exists – please grasp it!”
By Chris Lang In January 2018, the European Union suspended funding to its Water Towers Protection and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Programme in Kenya. The EU announced the suspension of the US$35 million project the day after a Kenya Forest Service guard shot and killed Robert Kirotich, an Indigenous Sengwer man, during a raid…
Kenya Forest Service evicts 300 Ogiek families from their homes in the Mau Forest. Despite the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights 2017 ruling that the Ogiek should not be evicted
By Chris Lang In May 2017, the Ogiek Indigenous People won an important land rights victory at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Court ruled that the Ogiek have the right to live in the Mau Forest and that the government of Kenya was wrong to evict them. At the end of…
Forced evictions in the name of conservation: 28 Sengwer homes burned in Kenya
By Chris Lang On 11 May 2020, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Fred Matiangi’i, issued a moratorium on forced evictions during the coronavirus pandemic. He made the announcement on national television. On 10 July 2020, Kenya Forest Service guards burned down 28 homes belonging to Sengwer Indigenous People in…
“Sengwer and the Forests are one and inseparable.” Despite court ruling, Indigenous Sengwer communities vow to remain in Embobut Forest, Kenya
By Chris Lang The Sengwer Indigenous People live in the Embobut Forest in the western highlalnds of Kenya. For years they have faced threats and violent evictions. The Kenya Forest Service has carried out a series of evictions of the Sengwer, supposedly in the name of conservation. In January 2018 Kenya Forest Service guards shot…