Stanley Shapashina, or Oloitipitip, dominated Maasai politics from 1963 to 1983 like a titan. When he faded from the public eye and into obscurity, his political career came apart like a house of cards, and he was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Most of the tiny communities that Oloitipitip converted to municipal councils while serving as Minister for Local Government were financially stressed.
Oloitipitip was the third child of Naseramporro and Olong’oyana Oloitipitip, and he was born in 1924 at Endoinyo Oontawua, at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. He belonged to the Irmingana sub-clan of the Ilaitayiok clan, who live on the Olgulului Ilolarashi Group Ranch, which is surrounded by the Amboseli National Park.
In his tenure as the Member of Parliament for Kajiado South, his career was shaped by the politics of conservation as well as the ongoing transfer of Maasai territory to foreigners. Oloitipitip attended the Narok Government School just for Standard Four, his sole official education, and in 1941 he took the Kenya African Preliminary Examination.
As coalition forces fought German Forces from Tanganyika at the start of World War II, the Kajiado area was transformed into a combat zone. When Oloitipitip, then 19 years old, enlisted in the Kings African Rifles (KAR) as a nursing orderly, she flew to conflict zones in Burma, India, and Ceylon with other African troops. His performance as a soldier is mostly unknown; all that is known is that he became a sergeant before leaving to return to Kajiado District in 1945 to serve as a medical assistant for the colonial health department. In Kajiado, he also operated a clinic in Il Bissil.
After Kenyatta returned from Britain in September 1946, the Mau Mau insurrection and the emergence of the first popular political party, KAU, took a new turn in Kenyan politics five years later. Following the rebellion, Kenyans from tribes other than the Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru looked to the British for assistance in quelling the Mau Mau movement. Despite having served in the military in the past, Oloitipitip declined to be recruited and supported the African struggle for independence. Additionally, he persuaded his clan to support the British in no war.
Following Kenyatta’s imprisonment, political debate centered on Kenya’s future and the contentious subject of land, since the Maasai had lost millions of acres to large colonial ranches. The most knowledgeable individuals, including Oloitipitip, came together to create the Maasai United Front (MUF) in order to fight for Maasai rights because they wanted to negotiate for a suitable post-independence settlement. Elected chairman Oloitipitip teamed up with Justus ole Tipis, a young writer for the Nation newspaper, and secretary-general John Keen to fight for Maasai land rights. The willing-buyer, willing-seller strategy was the British government’s preferred option over a general restoration of the “lost” land to the people.
