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Centre for Minority Rights Development (CEMIRIDE)

Nairobi, Kenya
Joined August 2019

Strengthening the capacities of minorities and indigenous peoples [MIPs] to secure their economic, social, cultural and political rights.



Presence in: Kenya
Focus: Citizenship & Identification, Community / Customary Land Rights, Environmental Justice, Livelihoods, Right to Information
CEMIRIDE is a non-governmental organization working with minority and indigenous peoples in Kenya. These communities have mostly been marginalized and excluded from development processes.
CEMIRIDE has over the last 17 years focused on recognition of minorities and indigenous people as a way of reducing marginalization and exclusion from a political, legal and social frameworks and processes mainly through advocacy work.
Some of it’s key milestones & successes include: Bringing the conversation on the existence of MIPs and the violation their rights in Kenya to the national platform; Recognition &protection of MIPs rights:This has been achieved through the recognition of minority rights under the Constitution of Kenya (Articles 56 and 100) as well as indigenous peoples (Article 260); Improved access to justice for MIPs:Public interest litigation for Endorois, Ogiek &Nubians land rights led to recognition of the existence of indigenous peoples in Kenya &hence secured their rights to their lands, as well as got back control of their hitherto dispossessed land; Increased protection of MIPs land and natural resource rights: Ensured the recognition of community land in the Constitution of Kenya as in the case of the Endorois’ ancestral community land rights &recognition as indigenous peoples through Public Interest Litigation at the AU African Commission for Human &Peoples Rights; Strengthening community advocacy by empowering and facilitating communities e.g. Ogiek, Sengwer, Ilchamus, Terik,   Boni, El-molo to engage effectively with relevant processes from local levels (e.g. TJRC) to international levels-UN & AU Conferences. These communities have since successfully advocated for the protection of their rights, etc.