PBI-Kenya visits with the Indigenous Ogiek peoples, hears about erasure and forced displacement from ancestral lands
The Peace Brigades International-Kenya Project visited the Ogiek community in Sasumwani, Narok County, in collaboration with the Ogiek People’s Development Programme, in early-July 2025.
PBI-Kenya visited to “support ongoing psychosocial healing and accompany community-based human rights defenders in their efforts.”
The PBI-Kenya article about this can be read at: No Land, No Justice: The Ogiek’s Resistance Against Forced Displacement And Erasure (October 27, 2025).
That article further highlights: “From the psychosocial follow-up sessions, key challenges emerged: mental health struggles and fragmented voices. Some demand financial compensation and new land; others refuse to settle for anything less than their ancestral home.”
Their article also notes:
“For the Ogiek indigenous tribe a community of approximately 52,590 people according to the 2019 Kenyan census, displacement and eviction are not just words; they are a painful legacy. Their struggle against forced removals stretches back to the British colonial era—a battle that has persisted for generations.
In the face of this erasure, the Ogiek People’s Development Program (OPDP) was founded [in 1999 and registered as an NGO in 2001] by Ogiek defenders as a steadfast pillar of the community. OPDP was founded to address the very historical injustices that have deprived the Ogiek of their rights as Kenyan citizens. It is dedicated to promoting the recognition of Indigenous culture, advocating for land rights, and protecting the environment that is central to the Ogiek identity.
Twice, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has ruled in favor of the Ogiek—first in 2017, affirming their ancestral land rights, and again in 2022, ordering reparations for decades of harm. Yet these victories exist only on paper. The Kenyan government has dragged its feet, offering excuses but no action.
More significantly, over 700 Ogiek families were violently evicted from Sasumwani in November 2023.
During our visit to Sasumwani, we sat with Ogiek families displaced … in 2023, listening as they shared their stories in a breakout session.
Today, most of them remain homeless, unprotected, and ignored.
To secure that future, the Kenyan government must move beyond promises to tangible action by fully implementing the court’s decision, protecting their ancestral lands, and facilitating their rightful resettlement. This is not just a legal obligation, but a moral imperative.”
The full article can be read here.
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