Indigenous Sengwer man shot and killed by EU-funded guards | Forest Peoples Programme
▻http://www.forestpeoples.org/en/rights-based-conservation/press-release/2018/indigenous-sengwer-man-shot-and-killed-eu-funded
41-year-old Robert Kirotich has today been shot by EU-funded guards working for the Kenya Forestry Service. Another wounded man, David Kipkosgei Kiptilkesi was taken away by the guards and his condition unknown.
At 2pm today, Robert Kirotich was herding cattle in Kapkok Glade, in the Embobut Forest area of the Cherangany Hills in west Kenya when he was attacked by a group of around 40 guards working for the Kenya Forestry Service (KFS). He was shot and killed and his body was retrieved by community members at 6.30pm today.
On Christmas Day, guards employed by the KFS entered Sengwer lands and forcibly evicted them, supposedly in the name of conservation. After evicting them, they set fire to their homes. The violence was one of many forced evictions that the community has endured and they have continued, on 29 December, 1 January, and right up to today. On January 4, the Sengwer held a press conference, calling for change for the new year.
Three UN Special Rapporteurs this week wrote to the EU urging them to suspend funding to the asking them to the #WaTER_Project. John H. Knox, Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, jointly said: “We call on the Kenyan authorities to urgently halt the evictions of Sengwer community and undertake impartial investigations of these attacks. Furthermore, we urge the European Union to suspend funding for the project until measures have been taken to uphold international standards on indigenous peoples’ rights.”
