By Aoma Keziah,
Members of the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program (OPDP), alongside community representatives and allies, gathered in Arusha for a compliance hearing at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, a continental Court established by Member States of the African Union to ensure the protection of human and people’s rights in Africa. This hearing, marked the latest step in a long-running legal battle aimed at securing justice for the Ogiek community, a forest-dwelling Indigenous group in Kenya that has fought for years to reclaim its ancestral land and rights.
Present during the session, was senator of Busia Okiya Omtatah, who highlighted that the Kenyan government needs to be proactive on this issue of Mau, and see how it can be resolved.
“ We have got a choice between this and that, but if you look at the work, the evidence that has been produced here, people are again still carving huge chunks of land from the Mau and giving themselves through hiding behind the Maasai, It’s not acceptable. I think it’s a matter that needs attention from the government and we make a decision one way or another so that we don’t have to waste time coming over this thing that already has a judgment and the judgment needs to be implemented,” he explained.
The case, formally known as Application No. 006/2012: African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v. Republic of Kenya, has been before the Court for over a decade. A landmark judgment in 2017 found the Kenyan government in violation of the Ogiek’s rights to land, religion, culture, and development, affirming protections laid out in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“ The question to be determined today was whether, through that report, that the respondent has presented, the court could determine if the Republic of Kenya has implemented the two judgments. We are saying, that the report did not meet the threshold of implementation. When you look at it, there are certain institutions which were established, Particularly the Task Force on Implementation of Court Orders, a multitask agency, and an intermìnisterial committee, which had been established around 2022, 2023, but when you go through the report, you don’t see what action these institutions have taken, and so we are saying, there is no implementation,” said advocate Bahame Tom Nyanduga, Lead counsel representing the Ogiek community.
In 2022, the Court handed down a reparations judgment ordering Kenya to take specific steps toward restitution and redress. But years later, the Ogiek say little has changed on the ground.
“This isn’t just about paperwork and courtrooms, This is about our land, our way of life, and our survival,” said one Ogiek community member attending the hearing.
Originally, the Court had scheduled an implementation hearing for November 2024, a session that ended without substantive progress after Kenya’s legal team requested more time to submit its report on compliance. The Court granted a three-month extension and set this new hearing.
“Today the Court asked the Kenyan government to explain which orders they had adhered to, which they were not able to show the court. Including failing to publish the judgment on government websites, the newspaper and gazette.” remarked advocate Emily Kinama of Katiba Institute.
The session, was held under Rule 81 of the Court’s 2020 Rules, part of its mechanism for tracking compliance with its decisions. Both parties presented their positions on the status of implementation.
Kenya was expected to provide a detailed update covering a wide range of obligations from the 2022 reparations ruling. These included publicizing the Court’s judgments in official outlets, restoring Ogiek lands in the Mau Forest through a community-led process, and recognizing the Ogiek’s status as an Indigenous people, among other directives.
The reparations also require the establishment of a community development fund, with Ogiek participation in its oversight, and the payment of KES 157.85 million as collective compensation for past harms, which the community states that there’s no implementation yet.
“ When the judgment was rendered on reparation, and reparation is actually a legal requirement, that once we establish a violation of a right, then the victim has to be compensated in terms of whatever orders that were made, Including payment of certain sums of money into a community development fund. Now, when you look at those orders, they have not been implemented to date, there are no specific statements in the report which show that the 12 orders in the reparation judgment have been implemented,” Advocate Nyanduga added.
According to OPDP and other Ogiek leaders, the Kenyan state has failed to meet even the most basic expectations.
“We came to the November hearing with hope, but we left with disappointment. Now we’ve come again, still waiting. Still holding on,” said Daniel Kobei,Executive Director of OPDP.
The Court reaffirmed the importance of timely implementation and used this hearing to push for clarity on what concrete steps the government has taken, or plans to take.
As the hearing concluded, the Ogiek community called on the Kenyan government to show political will by submitting clear timelines for full compliance. They also appealed to international partners and civil society to keep up pressure and offer continued support through advocacy, funding, and technical assistance, as they wait again, hoping that words spoken in court will finally translate into action in the forest.
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