International human rights organizations called upon the Kenyan government on Tuesday to halt illegal and forceful evictions in the Mau Forest, located in the Rift Valley of Kenya. Amnesty International, the Minority Rights Group International and Survival International stated that more than 700 people have been displaced from the Mau Forest and urged that the government take immediate action to prevent any further displacement.

Amnesty International issued a collective statement affirming that the forced displacements contravene the Indigenous population’s protection of cultural rights, as per the Constitution of Kenya. The statement also referenced a 2017 ruling from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the Ogiek case. The international human rights organizations assert the displacement of people located within the Mau Forest clearly amounts to unlawful eviction as it further contravenes guiding principle 7 of the UN Refugee Agency’s guiding principles on internal displacement. According to the international human rights organizations, the forced displacements constitute a severe infringement of both local and global legal norms, in addition to being “a gross violation of…human rights laws.”

Further contributing to the argument that Indigenous peoples are the best guardians
of their lands, the elders of the Ogiek contended in a November meeting that the government ought to come up with a framework for the sustained restoration and protection of the Mau Forest. The Sengwer Council of Elders urged the government to respect, recognize and protect their right to the ancestral lands of the Mau Forest, which are recognized within Article 63(2)(d)(ii) of Kenya’s constitution. Chairman of the elders council Paul Kiptum said, “When planning to restore and protect Mau Forest Complex – remember, the Ogiek indigenous peoples are part of the ecosystem and biodiversity.”

The Ogiek, deeply rooted in their hunter-gatherer heritage with a majority balancing sustenance through agriculture and livestock, confronts an escalating crisis posed by the encroachment of illegal settlers. This surge is now at alarming levels and has inflicted severe degradation upon a significant expanse of the Mau Forest, which is the ancestral and ecological haven crucial to the Ogiek’s way of life. Kenya’s recent employment of the Climate Change Amendment Act, which gave way for Kenya to participate in carbon markets, further leaves the nation grappling with the question of whether the same will create an avenue for further exploitation of Indigenous lands.

In their Tuesday letter, the international human rights organizations reminded the Kenyan government, “We stress that any forest conservation initiative connected to the forced eviction of Indigenous Peoples is illegal and in violation of international law. We cannot protect our planet without recognizing and respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their lands.”