Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 40 of the Covenant

24. The Committee is concerned at reports of forced evictions, interference and dispossession of ancestral land by the Government from minority communities such as the Ogiek and Endorois communities who depend on it for economic livelihood and to practice their cultures. The Committee is further concerned at reports that the Ogiek community is subjected to continued eviction orders from the Mau forests complex. The Committee notes that the State party has not implemented the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the case Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council v. Kenya. (arts. 12, 17, 26 and 27).

The Committee recommends that, in planning its development and natural resource conservation projects, the State party respect the rights of minority and indigenous groups to their ancestral land and ensure that their traditional livelihood that is inextricably linked to their land is fully respected. In this regard, the State party should ensure that the inventory being undertaken by the Interim Coordinating agency with a view to obtaining a clear assessment of the status and land rights of the Ogiek community be participatory and that decisions be based on free and informed consent by this community.