Kapsabet: The Okiek community in Nandi County has distanced itself from a pending land dispute case filed at the East African Court, which challenges the government over land lost in 2006. Community leaders expressed satisfaction with a previous ruling by the same court last year, which directed the Kenyan government to allocate each Okiek member five acres of land.
According to Kenya News Agency, after the court’s decision, some Okiek members from other North Rift counties rejected the five-acre allocation, arguing it was insufficient compared to the land they occupied before eviction. These dissatisfied members appealed to the East African Court earlier this year, seeking a larger land allocation.
However, the Nandi Okiek faction asserts that their displaced members are impoverished and content with last year’s court ruling, which mandates the government to allot five acres per member. They urge the government to implement the court’s decision to alleviate their suffering.
Nandi County Okiek Community Chair, Philip Maiyo, reflected on the 2006 eviction from their ancestral land in Serengonik, Nandi Hills, as a pivotal moment that left them destitute. “We are now displaced, miserable, and poor since everybody has ignored us,” Maiyo stated during a press briefing in Kapsabet.
He highlighted the loss of their Serengonik ancestral land, administrative units, and the dismissal of their leaders. Maiyo appealed to the government to permit their return to Serengonik, which once housed essential services like schools, churches, and police stations.
Maiyo further noted that nearly one thousand landless community members awaited resettlement on their ancestral land, contingent upon the government’s adherence to the court’s ruling. He emphasized that the National Land Commission is crucial in facilitating their resettlement after nearly two decades of hardship.
The historic East African Court ruling last year recognized the Okiek Community as “environmentally friendly,” advocating for their resettlement to restore degraded nature. Community member Philip Maswai urged county leadership to consider the Okiek for employment opportunities, given their economic reliance on nature-friendly activities like honey production, wild fruit gathering, and limited livestock keeping.
The 2006 eviction order aimed to restore forested areas to their natural state, impacting all communities residing in those regions. Despite this, the Okiek Community maintains that their economic practices were sustainable and nature-oriented.
