Joel Ogada
Joel Ogada is a farmer and member of the Malindi Rights Forum (MRF), an organisation 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 due to claims by the farmers that they have been evicted and displaced from ancestral lands by the factories. Community leaders and human rights defenders have been threatened, arrested and been the subject of judicial harassment.
While Kenya maintains the appearance of a country where the public space is open, specific categories of human rights defenders encounter a wide range of risks as a result of their work. These include human rights defenders and journalists working on highly sensitive corruption issues, those who document or contribute testimony on past violence (including the 2007/2008 post election violence and frequent extra-judicial killings by the police) as well as those using peaceful demonstrations as an advocacy tool.
