The country’s attempts to protect its forests have been undermining the rights of indigenous people living on the land. Evans Kemore, a human rights activist based in Nakuru, says: “We have been evicted many times. We have been socially, physically and physicologically tortured with our families. It is a shame.” The Ogiek are found in Nakuru, Kericho, Baringo, Nandi, Uasin Gishu, Naro and Bungoma counties. Sarah Osasi, a mother of nine, says he has suffered for several years as the government tried to evict them from the forest. “I have nine children, it has been not easy to survive the government evictions. We were always being evicted without a prior warning, forcing people flee from their homes with no time to collect their possessions,” says the 48-year-old mother amid sobs. She adds that she could go with the younger children, leave them more than 10km from Nessuit, where they were evicted, to return for the older kids. John Sironga , a family man, says armed officers could brutally beat men during evictions, injuring them gravely. “All we want is the government to compensate us according to the court ruling. They need to fast-track the implementation so that our community can be able to live well like other Kenyans,” Sironga says. Elder Kones says it has been difficult for the community to have a say in decision-making even at the subcounty level because they have been always regarded as a minority group who do not have tyranny of numbers. CULTURE DISRUPTED Ogiek’s lifestyle ensured transfer of indegenious practices and culture to the young, but several evictions disrupted their way of life. Peter Mumere says their children do not understand their forefathers’ culture because of the evictions, which has forced many families to be assimilated to towns and hence emulate other people’s culture. He says climate change has also contributed to the reduction of their habitat due to deforestation, hence reducing hunting activities, but they will make efforts to conserve the forest once the court ruling is implemented. “There has been a lot of disintegration of social ties in our community. Despite this, hunting continues to represent one of our strongest cultural identity factors, together with beekeeping,” says Mumere, a 76-year-old father of 12. Many Ogiek families have turned into faming top survive. Mau forest it the biggest water tower in Kenya, covering approximately 350,000 hectares. It borders Kericho, Narok, Nakuru and Bomet counties, and it supports diverse plant, animal life and the indigenous forest dwellers. The community says they have been using certain parts of the forest for religious purposes. They have also been depending on it for economic and cultural survival. “Several evictions from the forest have denied us our spiritual and cultural rights, hence we risk losing our cultural and religious identity” says Osasi.