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Government agency uses forest conservation as excuse for violating rights guaranteed under ground-breaking court ruling.

As winter arrives in Kenya, and temperatures plummet in the highlands where traditional forest peoples live, COVID-19 is surging across the country. But rather than being able to shelter safely in their homes, these communities are being evicted, and their homes and farms destroyed by their own government. In the Mau Forest, over 300 Ogiek homes have been demolished so far, and fences, farms and livestock have been destroyed.

Kenyan authorities have burned down 28 homes belonging to the indigenous Sengwer community in the Embobut Forest in Western Kenya.

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.

Calls are being made for the Finnish government to suspend a €9.5 million fund to the Kenya Forest Service because of escalating human rights abuses of the country’s indigenous Sengwer people.

17 January 2018: The European Union has suspended a multi-million euro project in the face of mounting evidence that its funds were being used to carry out violent human rights abuses.

41-year-old Robert Kirotich has today been shot by EU-funded guards working for the Kenya Forestry Service. Another wounded man, David Kipkosgei Kiptilkesi was taken away by the guards and his condition unknown.

Three independent experts appointed by the UN have expressed concerns about recent reports that indigenous Sengwer peoples in western Kenya have been attacked and forcibly evicted from their homes.

Nairobi, December 29, 2017 – In a remote region of Kenya this week, a government agency — flush with funds from the European Union—is sending armed security guards house to house