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Home / Article / AJWS Witnesses the Growing Impact of HUGAFO-K Across Kenya
On 2 July 2026, the leadership of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) held a strategic dialogue with the Hunter-Gatherer Forum Kenya (HUGAFO-K) and its member organization, the Ogiek Peoples' Development Program (OPDP), to reflect on nearly a decade of partnership advancing the rights of Indigenous hunter-gatherer communities in Kenya.
Led by AJWS President and Tawanda Mutasah, accompanied by the AJWS Vice President Shari Turitz and Kenya Country Coordinator Gitahi Githuku, the meeting explored how sustained investments in Indigenous organizations have strengthened community institutions, influenced national policy, protected Indigenous territories, revitalized cultures and languages, and contributed to climate resilience.
The following day, 3 July 2026, the delegation travelled to Longoman Forest in East Mau, one of the Indigenous territories of the Ogiek people. The visit transformed the previous day's discussions into a living demonstration of how Indigenous-led conservation delivers tangible environmental and social results.
Protecting Indigenous Territories Through Community Leadership
HUGAFO-K is Kenya's national network of Indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples. Today, it brings together nine Indigenous hunter-gatherer communities through 21 member organizations, creating a united platform that advocates for the protection of ancestral lands and territories, recognition of Indigenous identities, cultural preservation, and climate justice.
Across Kenya, these communities,including the Ogiek mt, Sengwer, Yaaku, Waayu, Aweer, Elmolo,Lmartin and Watta who have a common relationship with their ancestral territories. Their forests, rangelands, wetlands and coastal ecosystems are not merely places to live; they are the foundation of their cultures, governance systems, livelihoods, spirituality and traditional knowledge.
For HUGAFO-K, protecting Indigenous territories is therefore inseparable from protecting biodiversity. The organization's advocacy is rooted in the understanding that secure Indigenous land rights are essential for conserving Kenya's most fragile ecosystems.
The Ogiek Peoples' Development Program (OPDP), one of HUGAFO-K's founding member organizations, exemplifies this approach through its work in the Mau Forest Complex.
The Mau Forest Complex, covering approximately 400,000 hectares, is Kenya's largest closed-canopy montane forest and one of East Africa's most important water towers. It supplies water to more than a dozen rivers that sustain millions of people, agriculture, wildlife, hydropower generation and tourism.
Yet decades of illegal logging, charcoal production, agricultural expansion, human encroachment and forest fires caused extensive degradation across the East Mau landscape. Beyond the loss of trees, this degradation threatened biodiversity, reduced water security and disrupted the lives of the Indigenous Ogiek, whose identity and survival are intrinsically linked to the forest.
Recognizing that Indigenous communities are among the most effective custodians of nature, AJWS partnered with OPDP in 2016 to rehabilitate degraded sections of Longoman Forest.
Nearly a decade later, the impact is evident.
Across the wider East Mau landscape, community-led restoration efforts have contributed to the regeneration of approximately one million indigenous trees. Within the Longoman restoration site alone, 50 hectares have been rehabilitated, representing approximately 75,000 indigenous trees carefully planted, protected and nurtured back to life.
The restoration prioritized indigenous tree species rather than exotic plantations. Many of these species are of immense medicinal importance to the Ogiek community, whose traditional healthcare systems depend on the forest's rich biodiversity. Restoring these species therefore safeguards not only ecological integrity but also Indigenous knowledge, cultural identity and intergenerational learning.
Walking through Longoman Forest, the AJWS delegation witnessed young indigenous trees reclaiming once-degraded land, creating healthier habitats for wildlife, improving watershed protection and strengthening climate resilience.
The Longoman restoration reflects HUGAFO-K's broader philosophy: protecting Indigenous territories requires strong Indigenous institutions.
With AJWS's support, HUGAFO-K has grown into Kenya's leading national Indigenous hunter-gatherer network. The organization has expanded to nine Indigenous communities and 21 member organizations, strengthened governance through an active Steering Committee and Annual General Meetings, and developed a 2025–2028 Strategic Plan alongside a Resource Mobilization Strategy to guide its future growth.
These investments have enabled HUGAFO-K to move beyond community-level interventions and engage directly with national policy processes.
One of the partnership's most significant achievements has been ensuring that Indigenous hunter-gatherer communities become more visible within Kenya's governance systems.
HUGAFO-K coordinated public participation across seven member communities and submitted memoranda on the proposed National Policy and Bill on Ethnic Minorities and Marginalized Communities developed through the Office of the President's Minority and Marginalized Unit.
The network also engaged the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) to improve the recognition and classification of Indigenous communities.
Among the landmark outcomes was the successful unification and recognition of the Waayu identity, correcting historical inconsistencies that had long affected the community's visibility.
Equally significant, HUGAFO-K's advocacy contributed to KNBS sharing disaggregated biometric and statistical data for Indigenous hunter-gatherer communities, providing an essential evidence base for future policy development, planning and equitable resource allocation. While the validation process continues, the availability of such data represents a historic milestone for communities that have often remained statistically invisible.
The partnership recognises that protecting Indigenous territories also means protecting Indigenous knowledge.
Across HUGAFO-K's membership, language revitalisation programmes, Bible translations, dictionary development and the establishment of community cultural centres are helping ensure that traditional knowledge is passed to future generations.These initiatives complement environmental conservation by preserving the cultural systems that have sustained Kenya's Indigenous landscapes for centuries.
AJWS has also supported humanitarian initiatives that strengthen community resilience beyond advocacy.
During the International Day of the African Child, vulnerable Indigenous learners at Kosabei Primary School received school bags, exercise books, stationery and school shoes, improving learning conditions while affirming every child's right to education.These investments reflect HUGAFO-K's broader commitment to ensuring that Indigenous children can thrive without losing their cultural identity.
Although important progress has been achieved, Indigenous hunter-gatherer communities continue to face significant challenges, including insecure land tenure, climate change, limited financial resources, recurring legal battles, conflict and violence, and continued marginalisation.
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June 16, 2026