It is 38 years since Kenya got
Independence and Sengwer peoples are still fighting for a legal recognition as a
separate and distinct ethnic group. The community has been and is being
marginalised, isolated and discriminated in the three districts they live in.
The emigrants have become dominant in the Sengwer ancestral land and as a result
they are oppressing the Sengwer community members.
Since Kenya got Independence, Sengwer Indigenous Peoples have never had one of their own as a representative in parliament either elected or nominated. In the political field, the community has four councilors. In provincial administration, the community has never had adequate representation. In Civil Service field, there are no members of the community in high position like Permanent Secretaries, Directors, Heads of Departement...There is only an Assistant Director of Livestock in the Ministry of Agriculture. There are no representatives in parastatal and private sector.
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Sengwer
ancestral land left by the white settlers was given out to members from
politically, economically and recognised ethnic groups without considering
our community. The majority of the community members are landless.
Besides, 20% of them own on average 2,5 acres. We have lost all of our
land to outsiders, and this has contributed to assimilation of Sengwer
community by members from large recognised and powerful communities. Since
1932 up to now, community elders and leaders have tried through all
possible channels to get their land back in vain. |
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Over
half of the Sengwer ancestral land is covered by forest. The community
used to benefit from the forest by collecting honey, hunting and gathering
fruits and roots. They also collected plants and herbs of medecinal value.
The community has been denied access to the forest, hence denied the
benefit from its natural resources. |
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There
is a conflict of land between Sengwer community, Kenyan government and
other communities among which Marakwet, Nandi, Pokot and Keiyo. Sengwer
ancestral land is of high potential with adequate rainfall throughout the
year. This has led to encroachment by the larger ethnic groups who wanted
to acquire the land through corruption and forceful eviction of the
owners. |
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The government has taken part of the Sengwer ancestral land and converted it into Nyayo Tea Zones without the consent of the community. Besides, the community does not benefit from this. Their children are neither employed to work in these Zones, nor do they get any percentage from the proceedings of the produce. The community has not been compensated. |
Sengwer Indigenous Peoples of Kenya are highly marginalised, discriminated and their fundamental human and indigenous rights are not respected. They have never been recognised as a separate and distinc ethnic group.
Sengwer community members are denied their right to use Sengwer language in public meetings and in school teaching. At times, they are even denied the opportunity to participate in District, Provincial and National Traditional Music Festivals. This has led to gradual loss of Sengwer language, culture and traditional values.
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Because the Sengwer tried to avoid contact with the Whites, they were one of
the last peoples to go to school. The first Sengwer went to school in 1935. They
went to the boarding schools of missionaries. In the forties, 5 Sengwer went to
school, and in the fifties the amount reached 20 boys. The first Sengwer girls
went to school in the sixties after Independence (4 girls). In 1972 the first
school in Sengwer territory was built and it was followed by another one in
1973. The first secondary school within Sengwer community was Talau which
admitted form students in 1987. From that time, people started to go to school.
However, half of the Sengwer children still do not attend school, only a quarter
finishes primary school and only one in eight finishes secondary school. |
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Illiteracy
is estimated at 95%. There is a low level of school enrollment since most
of school age going children are at home. The Sengwer school were built
without external assistance and can not provide good education. Some
schools still have pupils studying under trees and incomplete classrooms.
Most of the schools lack sufficient and relevant learning materials and
electricity is not known in all schools. Hence, education is limited. |
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All
this has led to school drop out (about 85%) and poor performance in
national exams among Sengwer students. Besides, Sengwer students are
discriminated in allocation of bursaries despite the existence of needy
pupils and students who are either orphans or whose parents are unable to
give financial support. The situation is especially difficult in West
Pokot and Marakwet Districts where no scholarships awards have ever been
given to Sengwer graduates to go for masters or PhD. |
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Girls
have even less opportunity to study. When school fees are a constraint,
the priority is given to boys. Besides, most of Sengwer Indigenous Peoples
still believe that a girl's responsibility is to be a housewife. Early
girl marriage and pregnancy rate are high. Single mothers do not have any
income to support their children's education, therefore the children stay
at home, get into early child labor, pregnancy and marriage. |
Insecurity has been a major concern to the community for a long time. For example cattle rustling, which started in the 1950's, intensified in the 1970's and worsened in the 1990's. Rustlers no longer use arrows, bows and spears but sophisticated guns. Sengwer have lost thousands of cattle to Pokot cattle rustlers and human lives have been lost too. Sengwer community depends on cattle as a major source of livelihood. The community has therefore in several occasions appealed to the government to contain this situation in vain. The result is that the majority of the Community Members in West Pokot District stopped livestock farming. Hence, the socio-economic empowerment has been drastically affected, leading to increased poverty.
The majority of the community members are languishing in abject poverty. In
fact, they are not living but surviving. In essence, they lack sufficient basic
needs like food, clean drinking water, shelter, access to health facilities...
There are no income generating projects in all the areas occupied by the
community members. The community used to rely on the following which have been
crippled:
- Cattle: cattle rustling, collapse of Dairy Cooperative Societies and
Kenya Cooperative Creameries which used to buy and market milk from farmers has
left the community members with no source of income.
- Cereals: the high cost of farm inputs and the low selling price of
maize produced by Sengwer farmers has drastically affected the community.
Sengwer farmers have been frustrated and given their low per capita income, they
grow uncertified maize seed without fertilizer. Hence, the output can not meet
family basic needs. Kenya Cereal and Produce Board which used to buy farm
produces has been run down, therefore is now unable to buy maize. The situation
has left middlemen to exploit farmers.
- Credit facilities: the community has no access to soft loans or farm
inputs.
- Infrastructure development: the community lacks most of infrastructure
development. Health facilities are not within reach to most of the community
members. There are no provisions of clean drinking water, electricity and
telephones. The road network is very poor and impossible to use during the rainy
season. In fact, 60% of the total Sengwer population have no roads within 2-5
kilometers away from their homesteads.
- Extension services: these services have deteriorated. Farmers in the
rural areas are rarely visited by either Agricultural or Public Health extension
staff.