The Ogiek have been pushing back against evictions for more than a decade. In 2012, the community brought a case before to the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, asking the court to compel the government to stop evictions, recognize the Ogiek’s ownership of the land and pay them compensation for losses suffered during the evictions in Sasimwani and in other parts of the Mau Forest where Ogieks had been evicted.
In 2017, the court issued a ruling in this case, recognizing the Ogiek as an Indigenous people with rights to their ancestral lands, and mandating reforms to prevent violation of these rights. In 2022, in light of ongoing violations, the court reaffirmed this judgement, ordering reparations by the Kenyan government, including financial compensation, title to their land, and full recognition of their rights as an Indigenous group.
Steve Ngusilo says the 2023 evictions were conducted in utter disregard of the Arusha court’s rulings. This June, the court held a public hearing to assess Kenya’s compliance with its orders. At the hearing, the Kenyan government denied evicting the Ogiek from their ancestral land in Sasimwani and further told the court that there are plans to compensate the community for prior evictions, as per the courts orders.
“I was surprised by the way the government, through the Solicitor General’s office, alleged that they are doing something towards implementation. But as we are talking there is no implementation,” said Daniel Kobei, the executive director of the Ogiek People’s Development Programme, who attended the hearings.
THE OGIEK, UNFORTUNATELY, are not alone in their experience when it comes to carbon markets. Broadly speaking, carbon credit schemes have long been criticized for allowing companies to continue to pollute, for difficulties around verifying the integrity of the projects, and for displacing Indigenous communities. Additionally, though research shows that Indigenous peoples are valuable stewards of biodiverse landscapes — the kinds of landscapes that can store large quantities of carbon — a Lancet article on carbon markets as a form of colonialism against Indigenous people notes that “their exclusion within carbon market decision-making is ongoing.”
In Kenya, other Indigenous communities, including the Maasai and Borana, have reported eviction or exclusion from their lands due to carbon trading schemes. Communities elsewhere too, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Brazil, Peru, and Indonesia, have reported similar experiences.
There are protections in place that are meant to prevent this, including Article 6.4 Sustainability Tool of the Paris Agreement, which was adopted shortly before last year’s international climate negotiations, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The tool seeks to uphold the principle of “do no harm” and foster sustainable development. Among other safeguards, it spells out the criteria by which a carbon credit project participant should engage with the Indigenous people. “Article 6.4 activities do not result in the forcible removal of Indigenous Peoples from their lands and territories. No relocation is to take place without the FPIC (free, prior and informed consent) of the Indigenous Peoples concerned. FPIC must be documented, as well as the agreements reached in the good faith dialogues, consultations, and negotiations with the Indigenous Peoples,” the tool states.
COP29 ultimately advanced carbon credit schemes by making country-to-country trading and a carbon crediting mechanism fully operational with the UNFCCC framework. Following this significant step, Rim Berahab, an economist at the Policy Center for the New South wrote that “the road ahead involves navigating competing interests, and ensuring that carbon markets serve their purpose without compromising environmental or social goals.”
Last year, the Kenyan government enacted carbon market regulations that aim to bring more structure to the country’s trading scheme, and to protect Indigenous communities through similar requirements for free, prior, and informed consent. A request for comment on progress on its implementation from Dr. Festus Ngeno, Kenay’s principal secretary for environment, was unsuccessful.
But as COP30, which will be held in Brazil this November, approaches, the Indigenous Ogiek remain dispossessed of their land. As Kobei says, “We bear the brunt of carbon credit programs because we are the ones living in forests and in rangelands that are untouched and therefore, we automatically become the victims of what is happening.”
