Since time immemorial, indigenous communities in Kenya have been victims of land rights abuses. With the advent of colonization, these communities were dispossessed of their lands which were given to British settlers. Subsequent post-colonial governments did nothing to remedy these historical land injustices, instead, this history of arbitrary dispossession continues under the guise of conservation. The Ogiek of the Mau Forest in Kenya are among Africa’s last remaining forest dwellers and have lived there since time immemorial. To them, the Mau Forest is a home, school, cultural identity and way of life that provides the community with an essential sense of pride and destiny. In fact, the term ‘Ogiek’ literally means ‘caretaker of all plants and wild animals’.For decades, Ogiek have been routinely subjected to arbitrary forced evictions from their ancestral land without consultation or compensation, first by colonial authorities and subsequently by the Kenyan government. Ogiek rights over their traditionally owned lands have been systematically denied and ignored, while the government has allocated land to third parties, including political allies, and permitted substantial commercial logging to take place without sharing any of the benefits with the Ogiek. The culmination of all these actions has resulted in the Ogiek being prevented from practising their traditional hunter-gatherer way of life, thus threatening their very existence. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to have their grievances addressed by the government, in 2009, the Ogiek, represented by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), the Ogiek People Development Program (OPDP) and the Centre for Minority Rights Development (CEMIRIDE) approached the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission) with their grievances. In 2012, the African Commission referred the matter to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Court). In 2017, the African Court delivered a landmark judgment on the merits of the case in favour of the Ogiek, holding that the Kenyan Government has breached the community’s rights to their ancestral lands together with numerous other related human rights. Five years later, in June 2022, the Court delivered a reparations judgment which set out remedies for the breaches found in the 2017 judgment. The reparations judgment represents a hard-won and long-awaited victory for the Ogiek after decades of dispossession, non-recognition and marginalization. This judgement is significant because it clarifies the scope and content of state obligations to uphold indigenous peoples’ land rights, and emphasizes the importance of protecting indigenous people’s property rights as integral to the fulfilment of other rights including social and cultural rights. It also emphasizes the importance of an effective consultation process concerning indigenous people. The Court’s Merit and Reparation judgments are novel and represent a beacon of hope for other indigenous peoples across Africa. The African Court’s twin judgments also represent a new paradigm on the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and on conservation in Africa. ‘This briefing summarizes the Ogiek reparations judgement of 23 June 2022, giving an overview of the years-long struggle of the Ogiek community for the tenure of our ancestral land, the Mau Forest. The landmark judgement of the African Court gives our community access to and ownership of our natural resources in the Mau Forest, considered by us Ogiek to be our supermarket for all and sundry: we get our food, medicine, materials for shelter, and special spiritual nourishment among myriads of things from the forest’, says Daniel Kobei, Founder and Executive Director of OPDP. This brief explains the reparations judgement by the African Court. It gives a brief historical background to the case before the African Court and thereafter describes the considerations of the African Court and the decisions made. Finally, it also discusses the implications that the reparations judgement has, not only for the Ogiek community but also for other indigenous communities in Africa.

An analysis of land and natural resource conflict as a source of political violence, focusing on election violence in Kenya.

Minorities and indigenous peoples in Kenya feel excluded from the economic and political life of the state. They are poorer than the rest of Kenya's population, their rights are not respected and they are rarely included in development of other participatory planning processes. This report discusses the abuse of ethnicity in Kenyan policies, arguing that ethnicity is a card all too often used by Kenyan politicians to favour certain communities over others in the share of the nation's wealth. Kenya: Minorities, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Diversity exposes these concerns in detail via the analysis of budgetary expenditure in the poor Turkana region, which is dominated by the minority Turkana people, and in the richer Nyeri region, home of Kenya's current President. The author, Maurice Odhiambo Makoloo, calls for immediate action to address the inequalities and marginalization of communities, as a way of ensuring that Kenya remains free of major conflict. It calls for disaggregated data - by ethnicity and gender - and a new Constitution to devolve power away from the centre, so that minority and indigenous peoples stand to benefit from current and new development programmes.The report argues that Kenya's diversity should be its strength and need not be a threat to national unity. Suppressing and denying ethnic diversity is the quickest route to inter-ethnic conflict and claims of succession. The report calls for urgent action.

This book explores the nexus between natural resources ownership and the right to development in Africa. The right to sovereignty over natural resources and the right to development are recognised and protected in an extensive framework of international, regional and domestic instruments. They guarantee people's entitlement to fully and freely utilise their natural resources as a means of subsistence and for economic, social and cultural development. Yet, despite the abundance of natural resources in Africa a majority of the people on the continent remain largely impoverished. This book articulates the central argument that to achieve the right to development in Africa requires appropriate governance of the continent’s natural resources to which the people of Africa are guaranteed sovereign ownership. With case study illustrations from Zimbabwe, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, chapters explore the normative measures, specific guarantees and community entitlements to natural resources for the realisation of the right to development. The book will be an invaluable guide to scholars and postgraduate students of Natural Resources, Development and African studies as well as policymakers and practitioners in these areas.

The Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence features an annual review of global issues and legal developments from international courts and tribunals. The 2023 edition explores threats to democracy and the environment, international reparations issues, the implications of the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts pertaining to international law, and the legality of the ECOWAS's intervention in Niger, among other topics.

This is the scandalous story of how the Maasai people of Kenya lost the best part of their land to the British in the 1900s. Drawing upon unique oral testimony and extensive archival research, Hughes describes the intrigues surrounding two enforced moves and the 1913 lawsuit, while explaining why recent events have brought the story full circle.