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Kenyan land dispossession

EDM (Early Day Motion) 891: tabled on 15 September 2020

Tabled in the 2019-21 session.

This motion has been signed by 13 Members. It has not yet had any amendments submitted.

Motion text

That this House stands in solidarity with the people of Kenya who are seeking redress for the theft of their lands under the British colonial Government, who handed some 500,000 acres to white settlers, and to British registered companies; recognises that over 100,000 Kipsigi and Talai people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Kericho and Bomet Counties, the best farmland in Kenya, and many left to die of starvation in Gwassi, an arid area miles from their home; notes that similar ethnic cleansing forcibly removed over 50,000 Masai pastoralists in Laipkipa County, so that they are now squatters on their own lands; recognises that this was a systematic and oppressive abuse of many ethnic groups in Kenya; urges the British Government to accept liability and issue a long-overdue apology for these historical injustices; expresses alarm that British registered companies, Unilever Ltd, James Finlay Tea, George Williamson Tea, Sotik Tea and Sotik Highlands Tea continue to occupy stolen lands, artificially fix the price of tea to deny local farmers a fair price, and exploit tea workers with appalling working conditions, substandard housing, with no investment in local schools and communities; supports the campaign of Kenyan people to rectify these historical injustices; and calls upon these ranches, the British Government and these five tea companies, to implement fully the 2019 ruling of the Kenya National Land Commission, and address the colonial and current day oppression and exploitation of Kenyan people.