Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Killings and repression of defenders · Kenya · 2018–2024

Kenyan forest guards shoot dead Sengwer herder Robert Kirotich during evictions

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 1 none on record · 1 insufficient · 1 not measured · 2 disputed · 1 unclear See the gaps

Robert Kirotich, a 41-year-old Sengwer herder, was shot dead by Kenya Forest Service guards during evictions in Embobut Forest on 16 January 2018, in an area covered by an EU-funded forest programme. The EU suspended support the next day, and no guard was found to have been prosecuted in the sources reviewed; at stake is whether conservation funding can proceed without evicting forest peoples.

What?
Kenya Forest Service guards shot dead a Sengwer herder during evictions in Embobut Forest; the EU suspended support for its WaTER programme the next day. Forest Peoples Programme
Where?
Embobut Forest, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya Forest Peoples Programme
When?
Killing on 16 January 2018; EU suspension 17 January 2018; programme scrapped 2020; evictions in 2024 Forest Peoples Programme
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
  • Sengwer community — Families removed from Embobut Forest in the 2024 operation; the government reports more than 600 Nation (Mwananchi)
  • Sengwer community — Minority Rights Group counts more than 800 houses and 2,800 families affected Minority Rights Group
Harmed
Why?
The government says the evictions protect water towers from illegal farming, logging and charcoal production. The sources do not give the reason for the shooting. Nation (Mwananchi)
How?
Forest guards conducted an eviction raid during which the shooting occurred; the EU's Kenya ambassador announced the suspension the following day. Forest Peoples Programme
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

On 16 January 2018 Kenya Forest Service guards shot dead a 41-year-old Sengwer herder during evictions in Embobut Forest, according to the Forest Peoples Programme.

The EU suspended support for the WaTER programme on 17 January 2018 (Forest Peoples Programme).

REDD-Monitor reported in 2020 that the EU scrapped the programme, worth about €31m, when a contractual deadline lapsed.

In April and May 2024 the Kenya Forest Service ran an operation with 170 officers; the government said more than 600 families had been removed (Nation / Mwananchi, 2024).

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    1. 2020Outcome not on record
      Sengwer community case over Embobut evictions
      Kenyan court (level not stated in sources) · Civil · Sengwer community → Not stated in sources

      The court dismissed the community's case in 2020. In 2021 the Court of Appeal ordered that those living in the forest on that day should not be evicted.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Court

    • Unclear Sengwer community case over Embobut evictions: outcome not on record.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: about 200 houses burned during the 2024 operation, according to a photo caption.
    • Disputed Disputed: the government says the Kenya Forest Service paid 410,000 shillings each to 2,874 families in 2013 and that the Sengwer returned to the forest in defiance of a court order; the community says it did not receive the payment.
    • Disputed No guard has been found to be prosecuted for the 2018 killing in the sources reviewed; one cited ‘no arrests’ page appears to concern a different case and is not relied on.
    • None on record The sources do not give the Kenya Forest Service's own account of the 2018 shooting.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    Communities and civil society

    4. Sengwer evictions
      Minority Rights Group · 2024

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
    Terms used on this page

    Places and local terms

    Pastoralists
    People whose livelihoods depend on moving livestock between grazing lands.

    Carbon and conservation finance

    REDD+
    Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. A UN framework under which forest projects earn carbon credits for deforestation they say they prevented, measured against a projected baseline.
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