Mar 21, 2007

Maasai: UN Urge Land Reform


The UN hopes that the Kenyan government will be able to implement land reform in order to combat the dwindling Maasai land holdings.
Below is an article published by The East African Standard;

The United Nations wants the Government to implement the Ndung'u land report, especially in relation to the indigenous communities.

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Mr Rodolfo Stavenhagen, said this would enable the communities acquire what is rightfully theirs.

A report released to the UN's Human Rights Council by the official indicated that the Ndung'u report highlighted irregular adjudication of land in Iloodo Ariak, Kajiado District, to hundreds of Government officials and their relatives.

It is estimated that the Maasai lost a third of their land in Narok and Kajiado districts as a result. In Kajiado alone, 50 per cent of Maasai households did not have land in 1997, as compared to around 8 per cent in the 1980s, said the report.

"The draft National Land Policy should be adopted, retaining the sections on the land rights of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers," he said.

During a visit to Kenya in December last year, Stavenhagen consulted with national and regional authorities, UN agencies, representatives of NGOs and members of indigenous communities.

Displacement of original inhabitants has been widespread in the Rift Valley Province, and in most pastoralists grazing lands in the north and North Eastern regions.

The rapporteur recommended that stronger guarantees against the dispossession of indigenous communal lands be incorporated in the land legislation.

This, he said, would give room to challenge fraudulent registrations in the courts.

The Government should also ensure that no adjudication of trust or government lands occurs without the free, prior and informed consent of local communities, the report says.