This archive report was first published on 1 August 2019.
On August 1, 2019, the Lembus community, estimated to be around 300,000 people with approximately 60,000 voters, filed a lawsuit against Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and Attorney General Kihara Kairuki.
The Lembus community, which resides in Baringo County, claims that they have been forcefully aggregated with other communities, denying them crucial rights as a distinct community.
According to their lawyer, Dancun Okubasu, the Lembus community is forced to identify as members of the Tugen or Maasai communities when registering their national identity cards and participating in the national census.
Okubasu argued that the failure to recognize the Lembus as an official tribe in Kenya violates Article 45 of the Constitution, which mandates the State to recognize and protect the family as a fundamental rights unit of society and the necessary basis of the social order.
