Milka Chepkorir

Milka Chepkorir (born ) is a Kenyan anthropologist, Indigenous rights advocate and environmental activist. She is a member of the Sengwer Indigenous Peoples of the Cherangani Hills in Kenya and is known for her advocacy on community land rights, Indigenous-led conservation and the rights of Sengwer communities affected by evictions from forest lands.

Chepkorir has represented Sengwer concerns in United Nations processes and was an Indigenous Fellow at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2016.

Early life and education Chepkorir is from the Sengwer community of the Cherangani Hills region. The OHCHR described her in 2016 as a member of the Sengwer Indigenous people, whose communities occupy the Embobut and Kapolet forest areas in Kenya's Rift Valley.

She holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Maseno University. The Global Diversity Foundation and ICCA Consortium have reported that she has pursued a master's degree in gender and development studies at the University of Nairobi.

Chepkorir has been particularly associated with criticism of what advocates describe as "fortress conservation", a conservation model that excludes or removes Indigenous peoples from protected areas. The Joke Waller-Hunter Initiative described her work as focused on securing land tenure rights and policies for Sengwer communities and other Indigenous peoples in Kenya and across Africa. The Kenya Forest Service denied knowledge of evictions during the Christmas and New Year period, while Kenya's environment ministry corroborated that position. The EU stated that its support for conservation of Kenya's water towers was not expected to involve evictions or the use of violence.

Career and affiliations Chepkorir has worked with organisations focused on Indigenous peoples' rights, environmental justice and community land governance. In 2020, she was an Environmental Justice Fellow at Natural Justice in Kenya, working particularly on integrating Natural Justice's objectives into Community Land Action NOW! programmes.

The ICCA Consortium lists Chepkorir as a former Policy and Advocacy Co-Coordinator for Africa from 2021 to 2024. It also states that she coordinates Community Land Action NOW! (CLAN), a network of Kenyan rural communities seeking to register community lands, and that she has represented her community in different UN processes.

Her work has also addressed gender inclusion in Indigenous land-rights struggles. The ICCA Consortium states that her interest in gender inclusion has informed her work with community leadership and women to incorporate gender issues into land-rights advocacy.