Lidya Liyio: Voices from the Indigenous Women’s Exchange in Kenya

Between February 28 – March 3, 2022, the Chepkitale Indigenous Peoples’ Development Project (CIPDP) and FPP organized a 3-day Indigenous Women’s Exchange at Chepkitale, Mount Elgon, Kenya. The intention of the exchange was to make space for Indigenous women to come together, across borders and boundaries, to share their experiences and strategies within their collective land rights struggles and learn from each other’s stories. 

Lidya Liyio is a member of the Mau Ogiek, and shared a powerful speech on the last day of the exchange:

What gives you strength? 

“Our identity. Safe spaces for future generations. Safe space for the grandchildren. Concerning education, they should learn and they should live peacefully in the future, they should not struggle like we are doing now. The ancestral land that is ours and the connection with our ancestors. Pain. The pain that we are going through now as we struggle for our ancestral land. Culture. Conservation of our own culture. Then our unity. When we are divided then we may not solve our own issues. Unity goes with representation, both in the government and at other levels. Then our food, our herbs, and anything that concerns us.” 

What is one concern you face, as Indigenous people and as women? How will you address it? 

"The main concerns listed were: insecurity, social injustices, lack of social amenities, schools, hospitals and those basic needs, then markets for our own products, also we had the land rights defilement across all our communities, then representation in the government sector, then we have land tenure security or land ownership.  

"We chose to discuss land ownership.  

"These are the strategies we proposed to help us attain our own land:  

1. Continue with conservation and prevent other communities from intruding into our land so that when the government comes to say we are destroying our land, they should come and find it intact as it was so they will not have leeway to say we are destroying our resources in our land.  

2. Standing in solidarity with our other Indigenous communities, giving them moral support during any occasion, like during court cases: let’s stand in solidarity with them. For example, what the Ogiek did for the Sengwer. The Ogiek of Mau participated in their walk for justice.  

3. Use the media to condemn the harmful practices done by governments. We can give press statements and for those of us who are on Facebook or Twitter, we can have the hashtags like #I Stand with the Benet Community. It will help other communities feel we are all together- that we are standing with them even if we are not with them at that particular time, but we can show the world that they deserve their rights.  

4. [We can use our songs]. We had one member who spoke with a lot of strength when she said: “If it was through a song, I would win it!”  

5. We can stand with our men during the court cases. And also go to that court, rather than staying at home.  

6. For those communities who have not started their court processes, it’s good for you to start-go file that case, so it should be known that these things hurt you and you want justice to be done for your community.  

7. As we put those cases forward, let’s participate, as women, in documenting the injustices and anything that has been done to us. If you have a phone, take that photo. If someone is interrogating you and your phone can record, just record- nobody will know that you are recording. The documents can be used as evidence in court and those are the things that can help you win the case.  

8. Where possible, when you meet the authorities, just talk your mind. Do not fear because that might be a turnaround for your community. Maybe you will speak and someone will be touched and your community will be given justice.  

9. As we document the injustices and all the wrongs that have been done to us, let’s also as communities document those very important things to us on our land- let’s document the resources that we have, for example the caves, the trees and how important they are, the herbs, and also, your connection- the spirits- the connection you have to the land, so that When you go to court and you have the evidence that we as a community, we have these caves, we have sacred trees to us, so that if we leave the land, whom are we leaving our resources to? Or are we leaving with our resources? for example, in Kenya we know the famous Mugumo tree, so nobody intrudes that land because it is a sacred place. we have so many things that are sacred to us- if there is a way, they can give us all that belongs to us, even the spirits of our ancestors, put that spirit in a container and give us, even the skeletons of our ancestors who died and were buried in the land, then we are ready to leave. If they can do that, well and good we can leave 

10. We can also learn from other communities- what they have already done, those who have gone ahead of us. Be near to them, let’s know what they did so that we can also start. For those who have not started, you can learn from what other communities did up to where they are now. Even those who are in the middle, we can help others, because even as the Ogiek, we are learning from even the other communities outside Africa- what they did, how they struggled, and how they came up to win. So let us be free to learn and use the strategies that our brothers and sisters used on the other side of the land.  

11. If you file a case and nothing is forthcoming, you’ve been following it up for years and it’s not working, don’t sit down. Go to another level. When we come to these forums, we learn the different levels that other communities went to. For example, the Ogiek went to the high court, the high court did nothing, they went to the African Commission on human and people's rights. There after they also went to the African Court. So at least you know there are other channels that are higher and stronger than even the court in your country.  

12. For all communities, let’s develop a guideline of possible strategies that have been used, that other communities have used successfully. For example, it’s a challenge for the Ogiek of Mau to create a guideline that can reach each and every Indigenous community on what they did, at what time, what transpired. It will be a guideline that we give each and every other community. The document will be a good guideline for other communities, for example, there is this community (the Seminole tribe of Florida) that has documented their struggle, what their ancestors did, what they have done, now they are winning back their land, I think, now they are claiming back their land (New York) not forcefully, but by buying it. They buy everything in that land- every time they do something, they save and buy something on that land, so that in the long run, even if it takes a thousand years, the land will come back to their children.”  

Read More: Cosmas Chemwotei Murunga: Voices from the Indigenous Women's Exchange, Kenya