undertake with the community were inadequate and cannot be considered effective participation. The conditions of the consultation failed to fulfil the African Commission’s standard of consultations in a form appropriate to the circumstances. It is convinced that community members were informed of the impending project as a fait accompli, and not given an opportunity to shape the policies or their role in the game reserve. 282. Furthermore, the community representatives were in an unequal bargaining position, an accusation not denied or argued by the Respondent State, being both illiterate and having a far different understanding of property use and ownership than that of the Kenyan Authorities. The African Commission agrees that it was incumbent upon the Respondent State to conduct the consultation process in such a manner that allowed the representatives to be fully informed of the agreement, and participate in developing parts crucial to the life of the community. It also agrees with the Complainants that the inadequacy of the consultation undertaken by the Respondent State is underscored by Endorois’ actions after the creation of the game reserve. The Endorois believed, and continued to believe even after their eviction, that the game reserve and their pastoralist way of life would not be mutually exclusive and that they would have a right of re-entry on to their land. In failing to understand their permanent eviction, many families did not leave the location until 1986. 283. The African Commission wishes to draw the attention of the Respondent State that Article 2(3) of the UN Declaration on Development notes that the right to development includes “active, free 154 and meaningful participation in development”. The result of development should be empowerment of the Endorois community. It is not sufficient for the Kenyan authorities merely to give food aid to the Endorois. The capabilities and choices of the Endorois must improve in order for the right to development to be realised. 284. The case of the Yakye Axa is instructive. The Inter-American Court found that the members of the Yakye Axa community live in extremely destitute conditions as a consequence of lack of land and access to natural resources, caused by the facts that were the subject matter of proceedings in front of the Court as well as the precariousness of the temporary settlement where they have had to remain, waiting for a solution to their land claim. 285. The IActHR noted that, according to statements from members of the Yakye Axa community during the public hearing, the members of that community might have been able to obtain part of the means necessary for their subsistence if they had been in possession of their traditional lands. Displacement of the members of the community from those lands has caused special and grave difficulties to obtain food, primarily because the area where their temporary settlement is located does not have appropriate conditions for cultivation or to practice their traditional subsistence activities, such as hunting, fishing, and gathering. Furthermore, in this settlement the members of the Yakye Axa Community do not have access to appropriate housing with the basic minimum services, such as clean water and toilets. 286. The precariousness of the Endorois’ post-dispossession settlement has had similar effects. No collective land of equal value was ever accorded (thus failing the test of ‘in accordance with the law’, as the law requires adequate compensation). The Endorois were relegated to semi-arid land, which proved unsustainable for pastoralism, especially in view of the strict prohibition on access to the Lake area’s medicinal salt licks or traditional water sources. Few Endorois got individual titles in the 155 Mochongoi Forest, though the majority live on the arid land on the outskirts of the Reserve. 287. In the case of the Yakye Axa community, the Court established that the State did not guarantee the right of the members of the Yakye Axa community to communal property. The Court deemed that this had a negative effect on the right of the members of the community to a decent life, because it deprived them of the possibility of access to their traditional means of subsistence, as well as to the use and enjoyment of the natural resources necessary to obtain clean water and to practice traditional medicine to prevent and cure illnesses. 288. In the instant communication in front of the African Commission, video evidence from the Complainants shows that access to clean drinking water was severely undermined as a result of loss of their ancestral land (Lake Bogoria) which has ample fresh water sources. Similarly, their traditional means of subsistence – through grazing their animals – has been curtailed due to lack of access to the green pastures of their traditional land. Elders commonly cite having lost more than half of their cattle