Following ESCR-Net members' advocacy, the UN Committee on ESCR recommends the Kenyan government to consult the Endorois in all stages of the implementation process

Publish Date: 
Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The UN Committee on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has just published its concluding observations for Kenya. The CESCR highlighted its concerns “that the implementation of the decision of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (276/2003) relating to the Endorois has been long delayed, despite acceptance of the decision of the Commission. While noting the establishment of the Task Force on the implementation of the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights contained in communication No.276/2003, the Committee regrets that the Endorois are not represented on the Task Force and they have not been sufficiently consulted in the work of the Task Force (art. 1(2)).” The issues of non-representation and insufficient consultation by the Task Force has been raised by ESCR-Net members, such as Minority Rights Group, Kenya Human Rights Commission, Kenya Land Alliance and Dejusticia, as well as the Endorois Welfare Council since the creation of the Task Force in 2014

In its Observations, the CESCR recommended “that the State party implement, without further delay, the decision of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (276/2003) and ensure that the Endorois are adequately represented and consulted at all stages of the implementation process. It also recommend[ed] that the State party set up a mechanism that will facilitate and monitor the implementation, with active participation of the Endorois. It further recommend[ed] that the State party ratify ILO Convention (No. 169) on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.” 

The 2010 ruling of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) regarding the Endorois case was paradigmatic, as it recognized that the Kenyan government had violated the Endorois' rights to religious practice, to property, to culture, to the free disposition of natural resources, and to development, under the African Charter, and established government’s obligations to restitute the land and compensate the Endorois for all losses.

The Endorois were evicted in the 1970s by the Kenyan government from their land around the Lake Bogoria area in the Rift Valley to create a game reserve for tourism.