Joel Ogada is a farmer and member of the Malindi Rights Forum (MRF), working to protect land rights of farmers in Marereni, Kilifi County. The establishment of salt extraction companies along the coastline in the region has raised conflict between residents and the salt factories. Local farmers claim they have been evicted and displaced from ancestral lands by the factories. Community leaders and human rights defenders have been threatened, arrested and subjected to judicial harassment. Joel Ogada has been one of the strongest voices denouncing illegal evictions and land grabbing by the Kurawa Salt Mining Company and advocating against corporate impunity.
Case Details:
After 10 years in the corridors of justice and faced with what Malindi High Court Judge Mr. Kizito Magare’s Judgment equates to the South African apartheid-era tactics to grab prime properties from innocent citizens, land rights defender Joel Ogada has been vindicated by the court.
He was pronounced free of numerous persecutions because of his fierce stand against the incursion into his communities – who are primarily farmers – salt-rich farms at Kanagoni area in Malindi by a Kurawa Salt Company Ltd.
The judgment delivered on 16 November 2023 by Justice Kizito overturns a sentence given by the Honourable D. Wasike in Malindi on 2 December 2021, case number CMCR E 177 of 2016. In the sentencing, the court found Joel Ogada guilty of threatening to kill security personnel of Kurawa Salt Company Ltd.
Following the judgment, Ogada was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment or pay a fine of Kshs. 50,000. The Defenders Coalition posted the fine on his behalf.
Mr. Ogada was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by the Defenders Coalition and other human rights organizations when he was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison.
The Defenders Coalition paid the fine and appealed the sentencing in the High Court with the support of human rights lawyer Mr. Charles Onyango.
At the time, Kamau Ngugi, Executive Director at Defenders Coalition, noted that:
“This is a matter of concern to all environmentalists and land rights activists who express dissent over illegal acquisition of their property. It is an outrage as this means that any activist who dares stand against powerful corporations will be imprisoned.”
It was on 16 November 2023 that the High Court overturned the Malindi CMCR E 177 of 2016 ruling and set free Mr. Ogada.
“The conviction and sentence are set aside. The appellant is released forthwith unless otherwise lawfully held. To JOEL OGADA, enjoy your freedom. The courts in this country work as uMkhonto we Sizwe,” reads the judgment.
Further, Judge Magare ordered that the office of the Director of Public Prosecution shall not prefer charges related to land and or employees of Kurawa Salt Industries Ltd or their affiliates unless under the personal hand and consent of the Director of Public Prosecution in each case, given before the arrest consent other than by the person holding office as the Director of Public Prosecution.
Some of the cases against Ogada include CR 677/ 2010, where the complainant was the personnel manager of the Kurawa salt company, and CR 41/2013, where he was charged with forcible detainer of his own land. Kurawa Salt Company Ltd was the complainant.
The legal challenges against Ogada and his neighbors started in 2000 when Kurawa company launched a campaign to expand into neighboring community land through negotiations. Those unwilling to get minimal compensation for their land were coerced.
John Ogada, who mobilized his community against these advances, was immediately targeted for these reprisal acts that included multiple criminal charges against him.
The complainants were essentially staff of the Kurawa Salt Company Ltd.
Despite multiple acquittals, the company continued to mount numerous legal actions against Ogada.
It should be on record that Ogada has faced multiple criminal and civil cases engineered against him. In one of the cases, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for alleged arson of property of the Kurawa Salt Company Ltd.
The sentence was reduced to 2 years after the Defenders Coalition appealed the sentence. Ogada served the time, and his family home and food crops were destroyed while he was away
