The Rights to land of indigenous peoples’ in Kenya: a case study of the Ogiek community and the conflict of articles portrayed in the constitution of Kenya

Abstract

The Ogiek are believed to be the first people to have settled in Eastern Africa and were found inhabiting all Kenyan forests before 1800AD. Due to domination and assimilation, the community is slowly becoming extinct with figures showing about 20,000 countrywide. The Ogiek people commonly known as "Dorobo" are one of the most widely distributed communities in Kenya, inhabiting, now or in the recent past, virtually all of the high forest areas of Kenya. The Ogiek are a marginalised community. Traditionally they partake in hunting and gathering, though today virtually all of them now have added animal husbandry or cultivation, or both.4 The Ogiek have been living in Mau Forest since pre-colonial times on communally held pieces of land, which were administered through customary law. Currently they dwell in the Mariashoni area of the East Mau forest. Everyone has ignored the fact that the Ogiek too have a right to their lands. When the British curved out areas of Kenya into tribal reserves6 for the various communities, the Ogiek were excluded as they lived in small scattered groups over large areas and did not appear to have any property. This and many other agreements signed with other communities with the colonialists and poor government policies since independence has seen the loss and dispossession from their ancestral lands. This has in turn led them to becoming ‘squatters’ on their own land who face eviction notices from their own government.