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This open letter calls upon the Kenyan Government to halt the ongoing evictions of the Ogiek community in the Mau Forest by the Kenyan Forest Service (KFS) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

On Thursday, November 2, the Kenyan government began to evict Ogiek communities from the Mau Forest - allegedly on environmental grounds – destroying their homes and schools. Around 700 members of the Ogiek Indigenous community in Sasimwani, Mau Forest, Kenya are facing an impending humanitarian crisis.

The Ogiek of Chepkitale, Mount Elgon, Kenya, protect and care for their community lands over the long term. 

The UNFCCC Climate Conference (COP27) begins on November 6 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 comes at a critical point in the fight against climate change, and many Indigenous Peoples and Local Community representatives will be attending.

The first Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) took place in Kigali, Rwanda from 18-23rd July, 2022.

Le premier Congrès africain sur les aires protégées (APAC) a eu lieu à Kigali, au Rwanda, du 18 au 23 juillet 2022.

In June 2022, ten indigenous peoples’ communities from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania came together for the ‘East Africa Assembly on Land, Justice and Indigenous Peoples’ Co-operation’, the first round of a series of women-led community-to-community assemblies to explore how to overcome the legacy of colonial conservati

Representatives of Indigenous Peoples-led conservation organisations and networks in Africa convened in Nairobi, Kenya on 15 – 16 June 2022 under the auspices of the Alliance Rights, Inclusion and Social Equity in Conservation (ARISEC), to plan for their meaningful participation in the first IUCN’s Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) schedule

Kigali, Rwanda On the opening day of the Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) in Kigali, Indigenous Peoples from East Africa call on the IUCN to put their rights front and center in any conservation efforts being proposed, including an immediate end to illegal evictions from areas where people have lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years. 

23 June, Arusha, Tanzania

This report offers alternative information in response to the combined 12th and 13th Kenyan Government’s report submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (‘ACHPR’) pursuant to Article 62 of the African Charter (the ‘Kenyan periodic report’).

From Eastern Congo to the coast of Kenya, “security” crises are used to evict forest people, creating greater insecurity in the process. We compare this practice in relation to the Batwa in present day Kahuzi-Biega (DR Congo), the Ogiek in 1980s Mt Elgon (Kenya), the Benet at Mt Elgon in 2008 (Uganda), and the Aweer in Lamu County from 1963 to 1967 (Kenya).

In the lead-up to historic agreements on climate and nature being made in Glasgow at COP26, more than 180 civil society and indigenous organisations, and academics, from more than 50 countries, have signed an open letter that that calls on world leaders to put human rights at the centre of climate and environmental policy.

Over 150 civil society organisations and academics sign open letter calling on world leaders to integrate human rights into global and national environmental policy and practice

Three years after Kenya’s indigenous Mau Ogiek people received legal recognition of their rights over their ancestral land, the ruling remains unimplemented, and the Ogiek continue to suffer harassment and threats of further evictions from their own lands.

The indigenous Sengwer have suffered severe human rights violations at the hands of the Kenyan Government. In consultation with indigenous organisations, XR Scotland took action to demand that the Kenyan President recognise the Sengwer's right to their ancestral land.