Bogorian communities in Kenya appeal for support following floods

Ms Christine Kande, the Executive Director, Endaas Indigenous Women Empowerment Network (EWEN), has urged the Government of Kenya to support the Bogoria community which had been displaced by floods more than 45 years ago with the people still living under poor conditions.

About 3,000 households were forced to leave their homes as the floods destroyed their houses, health facilities and three primary schools.

Ms Kande said the communities along the Rift Valley were affected by rising water levels of Lake Bogoria which displaced marginalized communities in the area, leaving settlements, social amenities such as health facilities, schools and places for community rituals submerged due to floods.

The indigenous people had been evicted from their ancestral lands to pave way for conservation activities, a situation that left the marginalized communities displaced for a long time without adequate intervention measures to reduce the harsh living condition.

Ms Kande who shared the experiences of the Begonians with the media before an African Launch of the release of the Minority Trends Report – focus on water in Kenya, said the people had been displaced since 1975 and were suffering many challenges including drought and poor livelihoods.

According to Ms Kande, all attempts since 2003, to seek justice for the people had proofed futile.

She said after deliberations between the African Commission on Human Rights and the Government of Kenya, it was agreed that the government would compensate the displaced people but that had not helped much and the people were still living under poor difficult conditions.

She said the people had not only lost their ancestral lands but their identity as well.
Ms Kande said her main concern was that “It is not only the problem of dispossession and eviction matters but also eviction due to natural disasters caused by climate change, which called for quick action by the government of Kenya”.

She said the water was gradually encroaching the communities and had increased to an average of 30 per cent with impact on the health of the people, because the health facilities had been destroyed.

She said the consequential impact was on lactating mothers and children who had to walk long distances to neighbouring towns to access health services.

“We are poor communities, our adaptive capacity is impacted and numbers affected are huge”, she reiterated.

She urged the Kenya government to use the findings of the research on the community, conducted since the encroachment, to support the people and build up the community.

In response to what should be done, she advocated for government to take livelihood issues seriously by putting in interventions that would address livelihood challenges as a result of the environmental issues arising from climate change.