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Kipsigis Community is seeking redress in form of compensation and an apology by the British Colonial government for the damage caused in the forcible eviction and the use of their land.

In a petition to the Senate by the Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho), the community wants Senate to direct the necessary institutions and bodies to remove all the land laws and regulations put in place by the British Colonial administration.

“The petitioner prays that the Senate assist in ensuring that the Kipsigis community ancestral lands go back to the rightful owners, of the soil free of charge and assist in following up on the law suit against the British government for compensation and a formal apology,” said Cheruiyot (pictured) in his petition before the House.

Pre-colonial period

Cheruiyot in his petition argues that the British government forcefully took away Kipsigis ancestral land during the pre-colonial period and that when Kenya became a British protectorate in 1895, the British made land laws and regulations that benefitted them and discriminated against indigenous African communities including Kipsigis.

The laws include the Crown Land Ordinance 1902, Removal of Natives Ordinance of 1909 and the Crown Land Ordinance 1915 which effectively evicted and displaced the Kipsigis Community from their land. “There was no compensation to the Kipsigis community for the land taken for settlement by the British and dubbed as Crown Land. Instead the Kipsigis People became squatters and forced to provide cheap labour to the British settlers,” Cheruiyot says in his petition.

Cheruiyot said the British forcefully evicted the Kipsigis community from their ancestral land around Kericho, Kerenga, Tagabi estates and whole of African Highlands so as to give it to the British soldiers in the name of British East African Disabled Officers Colony (BEADOC).

The Senate Majority leader’s further claims that Unilever Tea Kenya (Brook Bond), James Finlay Kenya (African Highlands), George Williamson (Changoi and Lelsa), Sotik Tea, Sotik Highlands, Kaisugu Tea, Mau Tea, Koru and Fort Tenan farms are among some of the lands forcefully taken from the Kipsigis community.

In 2014, a petition was submitted to Kericho County as Kipsigis Community Clans Organization, Kipsigis Talai Clan and Borowo and Kipsigis Self Help Group.