Friends of Lake Turkana Trust

Friends of Lake Turkana (FoLT) is a Kenyan grassroots indigenous organization that works with and on behalf of communities within the greater Turkana basin to demand collective social, economic, cultural, environmental, and territorial justice. FoLT started its efforts in 2010 as a campaign pressure group advocating to defend Lake Turkana, its ecosystem, and the livelihoods of local communities against upstream development projects in the Omo-Turkana Basin. In 2012, they evolved from a campaign pressure group to an organization and broadened their focus beyond enhancing the protection of Lake Turkana and its ecosystem to defending land, environment, and territorial rights; protecting women and girls’ rights; advancing climate and energy justice; advancing social, cultural, and economic rights; and strengthening cross-border collaboration, peace, and security. They envision a future where the collective rights of communities are recognized and their territories secured, where communities are empowered to manage and govern their resources sustainably by fostering the participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities to achieve social economic, cultural, political, and environmental justice. (Strategy: Inclusive Governance)