The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has issued a blistering ruling ordering Kenya to end more than eight years of delay and fully implement its landmark 2017 judgment protecting the indigenous Ogiek community of the Mau Forest.
In a decision delivered on Thursday, the Arusha-based court accused Nairobi of repeatedly breaching its international obligations and warned that domestic laws or administrative hurdles can no longer be used as excuses.
It gave Kenya six months to submit a detailed implementation plan and ordered immediate steps on reparations, land titling and formal recognition of the Ogiek as an indigenous people.
The 2017 ruling found Kenya guilty of violating seven rights by forcibly evicting thousands of Ogiek to make way for conservation and logging. A 2022 reparations order demanding monetary compensation, community funds and land restitution has also gathered dust.
The court expressed alarm that evictions and harassment continue despite its earlier verdicts. It directed Kenya to halt all actions that undermine the judgments, demarcate and title ancestral lands in full consultation with the community, establish a development fund and publish the rulings nationally.
Daniel Kobei, executive director of the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Programme, called the decision long overdue relief after seven court appearances. “The government continues to deny us the right to live as indigenous people on our ancestral land,” he said.
Minority Rights Group welcomed the ruling but highlighted suspicions that evictions are linked to lucrative carbon credit schemes in the Mau complex.
“Kenya must now repay its debt to the Ogiek by restoring their land and delivering the reparations ordered,” said Samuel Ndasi, the group’s AU advocacy officer.
The strongly worded order marks a rare escalation by the continental court against a state repeatedly criticised for treating its decisions as optional. Rights groups say failure to comply risks further isolating Kenya within the African human rights system.
