GREAT SUCCESS FOR FIRST NATIONS IN KENYA
AFRICAN UNION COMES OUT IN SUPPORT OF OGIEK LAND RIGHTS
The Ogiek, the meanwhile world-famous honey-hunters of the Mau forest in Kenya, booked another success in their struggle for survival and the rights to their forest homeland.
The African Court of Human and People’s Rights of the African Union (AU), following the line of arguments presented by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ordered the Government of the Republic of Kenya to immediately halt any eviction of Ogiek from their ancestral forests, which the Ogiek had protected since times immemorial. It were the Ogiek who preserved the old growth forest of indigenous trees, resisted against the colonial plantations of non-indigenous species and thereby maintained the capacity of the Mau Forest Range as one of the five major water towers of Kenya until today.
In their struggle for recognition, natural forest- and watershed-protection and the rights to their territory ECOTERRA Intl. stood since 1992 besides the Ogiek, one of the five aboriginal peoples of Kenya (see http://www.ogiek.org).
The Ogiek had received their recognition as a people of Kenya only during the recent process leading to the new constitution. The subsequently established Mau Task Force, implemented by the Office of the Prime Minister, had clearly reported not only on the injustices against the Ogiek from the times when the colonial government – imposed by Britain – had robbed and transformed the Ogiek’s forests into governmental estates, but also listed the land grabbing by outsiders – including former state president Daniel arap Moi – and other issues of indigenous peoples’ rights, which had been so far unresolved.
In this context, the Court ruled that the Kenyan Government also should stop any distribution of land in the Mau forest to outsiders, a scourge which especially in pre-election times had become rampant and caused in the months of the post-election violence period of 2007/2008 the death of many peace-loving Ogiek in armed clashes, which did cost the lives of almost 1,500 Kenyans and turned 600,000 Kenyan citizens into so-called Internally Displaced People (IDPs), of which many still have not been settled again.
In the just concluded but already contested presidential and general elections of 2013 the forced influx of non-Ogiek into Ogiek lands and the biased demarcation of constituencies by the heavily criticized so-called Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) led to the now factual situation that the Ogiek, though being an indigenous First Nation of today’s multi-national state of Kenya, still have not even one governmental representative – neither in parliament nor in the newly created Senate.
While all presidential candidates during pre-election times vowed to work hard for the rectification of historical injustices, it remains to be seen if and when the Kenyan governance will follow this landmark ruling by the Human Rights Court of the African Union and implement the measures ordered to be executed within 15 days.
Kenya ordered to stop eviction
Arusha. The African Court of Human and People’s Rights has ordered the Kenyan government to stop the eviction of the Ogiek Community members and other settlers from the Mau Forest on grounds the forest constituted a reserved water catchment area.
In a judgement made on Friday, the Court, which is based here, also ruled that the same government should postpone distribution of land in the contested forest area, pending the decision of the court on the matter.
The order also enjoins the government of Kenya to report on execution of the measures in 15 days. The suit was filed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The applicant alleges that the government, through the Kenya Forestry Service, has demanded the Ogiek Community and other settlers of the Mau Forest to move out on grounds that the forest constitutes a reserved water catchment zone and wasn’t “in any event” part and parcel of government land under Section 4 of the Government Land Act.
In that regard, the applicant requests for imposition of provisional measures to stop the government from evicting the Ogiek and other settlers of the Mau Forest following a 30-day eviction notice issued in October 2009 and related statements made by some Kenyan authorities.
The applicant submits that the eviction would have far reaching implications on the political, social and economic survival of the Ogiek, one of the indigenous communities which consider the forest their ancestral land and that the eviction may result in irreparable harm to the victims.
Text: Zephania Ubwani – The Citizen Bureau Chief
—————
ECOTERRA Intl.
SURVIVAL & FREEDOM for PEOPLE & NATURE
———————-
Do you want to read or distribute a message in another language?
Just go to the free translation sites:
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/
http://www.babelfish.org/web-translation-vendor.htm
But don’t use these services for confidential texts – they are read and stored!
If you forward, please, still keep the reference to the source and
note in your distribution that the text is only an automated
translation, while the original can be obtained from ECOTERRA.
Thank you!
———————-
ECOTERRA Intl. nodes
Cairns – Calgary – Cassel – Cebu – Curitiba
– London – Nairobi – Roma – Paris – Wien
ECOTERRA – FIRST PEOPLES & NATURE FIRST!
24 h EMERGENCY RESPONSE PHONE LINE: +254-714-747-090
http://www.ecoterra.-international.org
Marine Group: http://www.ecop.info
Green is Good – environmentalism is not political – it is sanity !
Please help by becoming a donating subscriber today!
Please contact: ecotrust[AT]ecoterra[DOT]net
for personalized donations and donation rewards!
Please feel welcome to subscribe to any or all of our free mailing lists.
To subscribe to any group-list just go to http://ccmail.ecoterra-international.org/
(ECOTERRA Intl. keeps your Personally Identifiable Information
confidential and does not disclose, sell, trade or exchange e-mail
addresses or mailing lists.)
These are moderated lists [© 1972-2013] with low traffic on important issues:
UNIQUE_PEOPLES
(Defending natural rights of first and traditional peoples and
especially minorities)
(also various lists for specific first nation peoples
e.g: http://www.ogiek.org , http://www.madhibaan.org or
http://www.khoisanpeoples.org)
NATURAL_FORESTS
(Protection of the old-growth or other natural forests and its peoples)
DIVERSE_LIFE
(Protection of all species of wild fauna and flora)
BRIGHT_FUTURE
(Trackmaps for our common future)
CLEAN_SKYnSPACE
(Protection of the atmosphere)
NATURAL_SEAS
(Protection of the marine biosphere)
DIVERSE_LANDS
(Protection of terrestrial ecosystems)
NATURAL_WATERS
(Protection of the aquatic ecosystems)
NATURAL_GENES
(Protection against genetically modified organisms)
NATURAL_HEALTH
(Protection of human health)
TRAVELnCARE
(Protection of free voyage, safe travel and caring visit)
NATURAL_DEFENCE
(Protection of our values, our and our children’s heritage and future)
* The list of subscribers to the [NATURAL_DEFENCE] list will for
obvious reasons always be maintained off the cloud and off any server.
Though all our lists remain remain strictly confidential it can not be ruled
out that hacked servers or leaking clouds could be accessed by third party.
We go the extra mile and maintain the NATURAL_DEFENCE list off the grid.
CPU – COUNTER-PIRACY STATUS UPDATES (public)
SMCM – Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor ©
(All on Piracy, illegal fishing and dumping off the Horn of Africa
– internal only)
WILD_ROAR – (ECOTERRA ALERT BULLETIN)
FSM – FULL_SCOPE_MEDIA
(Free thinking, non-conforming investigative reporting and press
releases (hot news, investigative reporting, features & press releases
you hardly ever get from the mainstream media – English, German or
French ListServ)
WTN – WILD_TIMES_NEWS
(- the hard-copy for people without internet access /
in English and in vernacular languages (postal address required)
SUBSCRIPTION
To subscribe to any group-list just go to http://ccmail.ecoterra-international.org/
If you have difficulties or to unsubscribe just send a (reply) mail to
LISTS <mailhub[at]ecoterra.net> which specifies the list name! Thanks!
CONTRIBUTION of INFO or ARTICLES
YOUR IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANY LIST AND
TO WTN ARE MOST WELCOME!
Please send your genuine contributions in any format to
WILDNET <wildnet[at]ecoterra.net>.
However, proselytising or propaganda screeds will not be disseminated.
DO YOU NEED AN ECO-STRAIGHTLINER ?
Please contact highly qualified scientists (ecologists, marine biologists etc.),
lawyers, specialists and environmental experts or investigative journalists
with proven track record of not being lured or bullied by corporate or
governmental money via office[at]ecoterra.net
These are all no-nonsense people with vast experience.
Ask for the support of an ECO-Volunteer: Mail to office[at]eoterra.net
or become one yourself.
What you always wanted to know – check it out at:
EcoEarth.Info — Environment Portal" at http://www.ecoearth.info/ and
Eldis Gateway to Development Information http://www.eldis.org/
N.B.: For security reasons mails from ECOTERRA are very rarely
ever sent to these mailing lists with attachments.
If you happen to receive a message with an e-mail attachment,
please be aware that our sender address might have been spoofed
and we advise you to check that mail carefully without first opening
the attachment.
If you suddenly don’t receive mails from the usual list any more,
but didn’t unsubscribe, your mailbox or your ISP might have
been tempered with by (hidden) censorship – please let us know
and re-subscribe.
Sorry, if your e-mail address bounces several times, your address
will be unsubscribed since we have to keep a rather strict
unsubscription policy. Please re-subscribe, if you suddenly don’t
receive your mails from the specific listserv.
Avoid having your e-mail with ISPs, who are on the list of
fraudulent and/or notorious mail interceptors and trackers like
aol, yahoo, msn, hotmail, gmail etc.
Ad-mails (spam or UCE) are terrible, but don’t use ISP- or web-based
filters, since you never know their criteria. Stay in control and install the
anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall yourself, which are unfortunately
necessary in these days, and maintain them yourself on your system!
IMPORTANT NOTICE: To ensure delivery of your mails, please add
"@ecoterra-international.org" and "@ecoterra.net" to your address book
and "whitelist" of your spam filter, and tell your ISP or company’s IT group
to allow this addresses to pass through any filtering software they may have
set up. If our emails don’t reach your inbox, also look in your "Bulk Mail"
or "Junk Mail" folder. If you write to us and you don’t receive a response
within two working days, please send your mail again – it most likely was
intercepted or got lost on the way. Try as much as possible to use
encrypted mail (PGP, GnuPG). Please request our pubic key.
! CAVEAT LECTOR !
NOTICE: This email and any files or attachments transmitted
with it may be confidential and/or privileged. The information is
intended solely for the use of the individual, entity, group or list
to whom it is addressed, except if earmarked for widest distribution.
Please see also our disclaimer and copyright rules at
http://www.ecoterra.net/sites/disclaimer-site.htm
Unless other sources are quoted or other indications given:
© means: Copyright © ECOTERRA Intl. 1972-2013 – all rights reserved
CL means CopyLeft: Copyright except for non-profit making
individuals / initiatives / organizations, if used to positively portray
what it wants to achieve, not misquoted and the source is credited.
If you are not sure what it originally was set out to promote you must
ask the author or creator first. This means that you can use it
(graphics, articles etc.), if you are not making money out of it, do
not have the intention of doing so and support the cause. If you don’t
you must get permission from the author to use it. Please send us a
copy of your publication.
Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for
non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and
elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not
necessarily endorsed by the ECOTERRA Intl. collective. All
contents is published under the Open Content License, if nothing
else is mentioned, but some rights are reserved under the Creative
Commons Licence.
AR means Anti-Copyright: Use freely for whatever you want it.
It comes from the perspective that copyright should not exist at all
or that there is no need to copyright the information or image as we
wish it to be distributed freely and reused in whatever way.