Paying the Price: A Study on Criminalization of Land and Environmental Rights Defenders in East Africa

As the demand for land-based investments in East Africa rises, alongside unprecedented growth in population sizes in some of the fastest-growing economies on the African continent, pressure on and conflicts over land and the environment are bound to increase. Indeed, land-related conflicts are now a common feature in the region, with disputes pitting governments, multinational companies, and local private sector actors against Indigenous Peoples and citizens generally. For every action, however, there is an equal and opposite reaction, as Newton?s third law of motion teaches us. Where violations against people?s land and environmental rights occur, resistance?both in form and in substance?can be expected. More often than not, that resistance is met with counter-resistance and pushback from the state and private capital interests.