Statement on Evictions of Sengwer in western Kenya

On 15 January, John Knox joined Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, to issue a statement expressing their concerns about reports that indigenous Sengwer peoples in western Kenya had been attacked and forcibly evicted from their homes as a result of the implementation of the Water Towers Protection and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation project, an EU-funded water management project.  The experts called on the Kenyan authorities to urgently halt the evictions of the Sengwer community and undertake impartial investigations of these attacks, and on the EU to suspend funding for the project until measures have been taken to uphold international standards on indigenous peoples’ rights.