African Court Rules Expelling Indigenous Population in Kenya Would Violate the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (May 26, 2017) [1]
On May 26, 2017, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights ruled [3] in African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v. The Republic of Kenya that Kenya violated Articles 1, 2, 8, 14 17(2) and (3), 21, and 22 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights when it evicted the Ogiek Community of the Mau Forest. According to the case summary [4], “the Kenyan Government issued a thirty (30) days eviction notice to the Ogiek and other settlers of the Mau Forest, demanding that they move out of the forest on the grounds that the forest constituted a reserved water catchment zone, and was in any event part and parcel of government land.” The Ogiek argued “that the decision of the Kenyan Government will have far reaching implications on the political, social and economic survival of the Ogiek Community.” The Court determined that the Ogieks are recognized as an indigenous population and have “a particular status and deserving special protection deriving from their vulnerability.” The Court also held that in expelling the Ogieks from their ancestral lands the Kenyan government violated their rights to land, denied them rights available to other tribes, rendered it impossible for the community to continue its religious practices, violated their right to culture, deprived them of the right to enjoy food produced by their ancestral lands, and adversely impacted their economic, social and cultural development. The Court ordered Kenya “to take all appropriate measures within a reasonable time frame to remedy all the violations established and to inform the Court of the measures taken within six (6) months.”