How the Maasai Tribe has been raped for years. The Maasai roamed a huge part of the present day Kenya. From the coast where they conducted raids on European mission stations and coastal tribes, to Mumias where they served as Nabong’o Mumia’s mercenaries against western tribes that resisted British rule.
Infact early Europeans who arrived in Nairobi at the turn of the 20th Century claimed to have found a Maasai manyatta on the present day Upper Hill.
They were the earliest victims of colonial land injustices precipitated by the influx of white settlers in the Protectorate.
There was a saying among white settlers that ” A European requiring a livestock farm cannot go wrong in acquiring land formerly occupied by Maasai” . This was because Maasai were experts in choosing grazing grounds.
Such arguments influenced the displacement of the Maasai and the occupation of their land by White Settlers who wanted to operate stock farms.
When the settlers arrived following the completion of the Uganda Railway, they were impressed with the land around Lakes Naivasha, Elementaita and Nakuro (Nakuru). They therefore requested the Maasai if they could go North to Laikipia.
They were promised that if they agreed to the suggestion they would remain in Laikipia forever never to be disturbed again. The settler in their mischief went as far as convincing the Maa that their interest was in the land along the railway line and nothing much.
Eventual under heavy pressure from the government the Maasai agreed to move to Laikipia against their wishes. A treaty was signed to this effect in August and the Maasai vacated their land and moved North to Laikipia. However a section of the Purko clan refused to go and instead disappeared southwards.
Despite the inhumane eviction of the Maasai from their ancestral land to Laikipia, it didn’t take long before the settlers started salivating over the Laikipia land too. They had turned Maasai into doing donkey work for them , then they come in and occupy.
Commissioner Donald Stewart the British administrator who had negotiated the 1904, was already aware of this mischief by White Settlers and had written to the Secretary of State that the settlers were likely to salivate over the Laikipia after the Maasai and their livestock had grazed and improved it.
To stop this Commissioner Stewart inserted a clause in the 1904 agreement which stated that” the Maasai settlement at Laikipia shall be enduring so long as the Masai as a race shall exist and that Europeans or other settlers shall not be allowed to take up land in the settlements.”
In essence Stewart banned white settlers from occupy any land in Laikipia since it was a Masai settlement as per the treaty. Commissioner Stewart’s sudden death the following year, created room for maneuvers to evict the Maasai from Laikipia to create white settlements.
By 1908, plans were already underway to evict Masai who were to be driven to the Southern borders of the Protectorate. The Maasai protested and Lenana who was not firm enough, found himself losing touch with the Northern Maasai.
Legalishu who was one of the most forceful chiefs of the Northern Maasai opposed the move to the last minute telling the government ” If you wish us to go , we will go , but we do not wish to go.”
Maasai colonial injustices cant be corrected,,, its not workable,, if they were to be addressed then majority of kenyans will be dispossesed of land,, every non – maasai living in laikipia, Nyandarua, northern parts of Nyeri, Nakuru as a whole will be forced out, it cant work,,, however kenyans can ensure that Maasai get a right to self governance in the remaining territories of kajiado and Narok,, there is an emerging threat of leadership being totally taken over from the native maasais in these 2 counties(that will be the last nail in the coffin) ,,, as a maasai i plead with particularly the kikuyu who happened to benefit more and settled in those british alienated maasai lands to understand na watuachie izi mbili zimebaki tafadhali,,,, am also glad the western tribes not forgetting the Kamba have been rather considerate as they always vote in native maasai for elective posts.