Indigenous Peoples in Kenya include hunter-gatherers such as Ogiek, Sengwer, Yaaku Waata and Sanya, while pastoralists include Endorois, Turkana, Maasai, Samburu and others.
Kenya does not have specific legislation on Indigenous Peoples and has not yet adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ratifies Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization. The Indigenous Peoples of Kenya face scarcity and insecurity of land and resources, poor services and discrimination.
However, Kenya has ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Racial (CERD) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Chapter Four of the Constitution of Kenya contains a progressive Bill of Rights that makes international law a key component of the laws of Kenya and guarantees the protection of minorities and marginalized groups. In accordance with articles 33, 34, 35 and 36, freedom of expression, means of communication and access to information and association are guaranteed. However, the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is not made in Kenya.
In Kenya, the people who identify with the Indigenous movement are mainly nomadic herders and hunter-gatherers, as well as some fishing villages and small farming communities. It is estimated that pastoralists comprise 25% of the national population, while the largest individual hunter-gatherer community amounts to approximately 79,000.
The pastoralists mainly occupy the arid and semi-arid lands of northern Kenya and towards the border between Kenya and Tanzania in the south.
The hunter-gatherers include the Ogiek, Sengwer, Yiaku, Waata and Aweer (Boni), while the pastoralists include the Turkana, Rendille, Borana, Maasai, Samburu, Ilchamus, Somali, Gabra, Pokot, Endorois and others.
The Indigenous Peoples of Kenya face insecurity in the possession of land and resources, poor service provision, low political representation, discrimination and exclusion. The situation of Indigenous Peoples seems to worsen each year, with increasing competition for resources in their areas.
The practice of forced evictions against Indigenous Peoples such as Sengwer hunter-gatherers in Kenya has been widespread. These evictions have had serious effects and have caused numerous violations of human rights: the right to security of the person, the right to non-interference with privacy, family and home and the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions.
The territories of the Indigenous Peoples constitute the only remaining space destined for the extraction of natural resources such as oil, gas, wind and geothermal energy, as well as massive infrastructure projects such as railways, roads and pipelines to comply with the country's development plan. called Vision 2030.
Indigenous women in Kenya face multifaceted social, cultural, economic and political constraints and challenges. First, by belonging to minority and marginalized peoples at the national level; and secondly, through internal social and cultural prejudices.
Prejudices have continued to deny indigenous women equal opportunities to get out of the marasmus of high levels of illiteracy and poverty. It has also prevented them from having a voice to inform and influence political and cultural governance and development policies and processes, due to unequal power relations at both the local and national levels. However, more women have been elected and entered politics in 2017.
The Kenyan government has sent police troops to Embobut forest area (in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Western Kenya) to forcefully evict thousands of the indigenous inhabitants of the Sengwer and Cherangany communities from their ancestral forestlands. The eviction is expected to commence as early as tomorrow.
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued provisional measures to ensure that the Ogiek people of the Mau forest cannot be evicted by the Kenyan government, while the matter continues before the court. The Ogiek people are one of a number of hunter-gatherer peoples in Kenya threatened by forced land evictions. This historical result was announced mid-March after the Ogiek case recenty became the first indigenous rights case to come before the court since it began in 2006.
The US based NGO Cultural Survival is appealing to Kenyan government authorities to halt police operations in Northern Kenya, where Indigenous Samburu villages have suffered brutal police attacks over the last year.
On July 26 the Maasai community who live in Narasha in Naivasha, Kenya was stormed by hundreds of hired goons accompanied by armed police. During the attack on the settlement 2 men were wounded by shots, 61 homesteads were destroyed, 500 lambs, 200 calves and food that was in stores were burnt. As a result of the raid over 2000 people were left homeless and are currently living in the cold without food or shelter.
The Endorois community in Kenya has been forcibly removed from their ancestral land around Lake Bogoria without prior consultation and adequate and effective compensation.
IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs - is a global human rights organisation dedicated to promoting and defending Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Read more.
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IWGIA's global report, the Indigenous World, provides an update of the current situation for Indigenous Peoples worldwide. Read The Indigenous World.
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