Community Land Protection in East Africa
In October 2016, the Legal Empowerment Network and the Namati Community Land Protection Program partnered with the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA), Ogiek People’s Development Program (OPDP), and Kivulini Trust to host a learning exchange.
The focus of the exchange was the community land protection approach for working with communities embodied in the Community Land Protection Facilitator’s Guide and the use of paralegals within that approach.
The participants split up into groups with each of the three Kenyan hosts based on the type of communities they worked with in order to make learning more relevant to their work. Some participants were already leading in their community land protection efforts and looking to scale, others were looking to start a program using specific techniques from a legal empowerment approach to community land protection. Site visits and dialogue exchanges allowed participants to leave with valuable information to incorporate in their future work.
For more information about our learning exchanges, please contact exchanges@namati.org.
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“…I have witnessed the importance of legal empowerment in the way the community in Kenya safeguard their land by conducting mapping for the community land as well as having bylaws in place. I am proud to be a member of the Legal Empowerment Network as it will improve my performance in relation to assisting communities to protect their land. I welcome all to join the network!”
Flora Masoy (Morogoro Paralegal Centre, Tanzania)
Flora Masoy
(Morogoro Paralegal Centre, Tanzania
“The exchange has helped to broaden my knowledge and skills on how best I can remodel and make my programme work better to achieve greater community land protection. Over and above learning new skills in community land protection, most striking is the skills in navigating through the challenges that we face on a daily basis in our programme.”
David Okello
Centre for Public Interest Law, Uganda
“The community land protection exchange is a timely intervention – providing communities with tools and a structured approach to securing and protecting land rights. Use of trained paralegals are critical part in implementation of community land protection.”
Jamaldin Yahya
Nubian Rights Forum, Kenya
“The learning exchange enabled me to understand the dynamic and challenges in land rights protection. This informs legal empowerment approaches that motivate victims of land rights violation to demand for their land rights.”
Onencan Paolyel
Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation, Uganda
Participants
Twenty African organizations were represented at the exchange, hailing from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
- Dalle Abraham, Natural Justice: Lawyers for Communities and the Environment (Kenya)
- Esterina Dokhe, National Land Commission (Kenya)
- Egaru Emmanuel Omiat, Uganda Land Alliance (Uganda)
- Liban Golicha, Kivulini Trust (Kenya)
- Joshua Koros, Kerio Valley Community Organization (Kenya)
- Tony Kyembwa, Justice Pour Tous (DRC)
- Kondei Makko, Ujamaa Community Resource Team UCRT (Tanzania)
- Flora Masoy, Morogoro Paralegal Centre (Tanzania)
- Monica Mutesi, Civic Response on Environment and Development (Uganda)
- Moe Odele, International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) (United States)
- Hillary Ogina K’odieny, Kenya Land Alliance (Kenya)
- David Okello, Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) (Uganda)
- Paolyel Onencan, Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation (BIRUDO) (Uganda)
- Parsanka Saiyanka, Il’laramatak Community Concerns (Kenya)
- John Lengoisa Samorai, Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program (OPDP) (Kenya)
- John Ole Tingoi, Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and conflict Transformation (Kenya)
- Musa Usman Ndamba, MBOSCUDA (Cameroon)
- Gladys, Warigia Njoroge, Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (Kenya)
- Jamaldin Yahya, Nubian Rights Forum (Kenya)
- Timothy Ole Yaile, Pastoral Women’s Council (Tanzania)