In the Grip of the Vampire State: Maasai Land Struggles in Kenyan Politics

Abstract

At the point of colonial conquest, Kenya's Maasai entered into a treaty with the British that signed away their land rights to seasonal grazing lands in the Rift Valley. A second treaty, replacing the first, then moved them from the prized pastures of the Laikipia plateau, confining them to a poorly watered ‘Native Reserve’ in the southern portion of the country. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the campaign for the restitution of these lost lands has been revived, amid a political clamour in Kenya for the revisiting of history to confront past wrongs. This article provides a personal account of the unfolding of this campaign in Kenya and the response of the NARC government to the Maasai challenge, drawing upon both first-hand experience of the events described and newspaper reports. The final section reflects upon the seemingly unchanging character of Kenya politics even in this ‘new age’ of liberal democracy.

I am indebted to my supervisor David Anderson for his valuable advice in the shaping of the ideas behind this project, which was originally presented as a dissertation on the Reuters Programme at the University of Oxford. I acknowledge with gratitude the generosity of Lotte Hughes, who shared with me her research findings on the history of the Maasai moves.

Notes

1. Hughes, ‘Malice in Maasailand’, sets out the historical background.

2. Hughes, Moving the Maasai, tells the story of the moves.

3. Hughes, ‘Malice in Maasailand’.

4. Hill, Permanent Way, for the history of the railway. Sorrenson, Origins of European Settlement, for the enactment of British settlement policy.

5. Thomson, Through Masailand; Johnston, Uganda Protectorate.

6. Hughes, ‘Beautiful Beasts and Brave Warriors’, discusses the effects of this stereotyping.

7. On the Nandi example, Anderson, ‘Visions of the Vanquished’, 164–90.

8. The most authoritative account of these events is to be found in the writings of Richard Waller: ‘Maasai and the British’ and ‘Emutai’.

9. Contained in a statement read out to Colonial Secretary, Reginald Maudling by Maasai delegation leader Justus ole Tipis, Government House, Nairobi, 27 November 1961, Public Record Office [PRO] CO 822/2000 115261.

10. These issues became entangled in the majimboist (or ‘regionalist’) constitutional debates of the time: see Anderson, ‘Yours in Struggle’.

11. The Colonial Office's position is laid out in a memo: PRO CO 822/2000/115261, ‘The Masai Agreements’, 19 February 1962. For overviews of the period and commentary on these events, see Kyle, Politics of Independence in Kenya, and Ogot and Ochieng’, Decolonization and Independence.

12. For the revival of majimboism since the early 1990s, see Anderson, ‘Majimboism’.

13. I have here borrowed from the late Dr Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing, in an ambitious attempt to recreate some of the mood from his searing novel.

14. Mzungu is Kiswahili for European.

15. Shuka means blanket in Kiswahili, and is the term used for the cotton wrap-around that the Maasai have adopted as their traditional attire.

16. Hughes, Moving the Maasai. The Magadi Soda company was originally owned by Brunner, Mond & Co. When Mond was compulsorily wound up, the Magadi interest was taken over by ICI who sold it in the early 1990s to the Penrice Group, a Canadian company. It reverted to its Brunner, Mond before recently being acquired by the Tata Group of India.

17. See Brunner, Mond & Co. official website: www.brunnermond.com

18. Maa Civil Society Forum, ‘A Memorandum on the Anglo-Maasai Agreements: A Case of Historical and Contemporary Injustices and the Dispossession of Maasai Land’, 13 August 2004.

19. Maa Civil Society Forum, ‘A Memorandum on the Anglo-Maasai Agreements: A Case of Historical and Contemporary Injustices and the Dispossession of Maasai Land’, 13 August 2004.

20. Brantley, The Giriama.

21. ‘Maasai Demand “Their” Land From British Ranchers’, East African Standard, 14 August 2004.

22. ‘Maasai Demand “Their” Land From British Ranchers’, East African Standard, 14 August 2004.

23. Daily Nation, 14 August 2004.

24. Mbenzi is a Kiswahili-ism popularised by the Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o. It means literally, ‘he of the [Mercedes] Benz’, and is used as a signifier for the African nouveau riche of the immediate post-independence generation. It is somewhat anachronistic today, but I can't think of a better word to describe the nationalist elite.

25. ‘Establishing the Pax Lenana in Maasailand’, Daily Nation, 22 July 2004, also 5 August 2004.

26. The reference is to Eliot, East Africa Protectorate.

27. A hand-cart in Kiswahili.

28. For the story of the 1990s clashes, see Oucho, Undercurrents of Ethnic Conflict.

29. Hartley, ‘Cargo Cult’.

30. ‘Maasai Demand “Their” Land From British Ranchers’, East African Standard, 14 August 2004; the quote is attributed to Elijah ole Sempeta.

31. ‘Masai Invaders Target Last White Farmers’, Daily Telegraph, 13 August 2004.

32. Marc Lacey, ‘Tribe, Claiming Whites’ Land, Confronts Kenya Government’, New York Times, 24 August 2004.

33. ‘Masai Invaders Target Last White Farmers’, Daily Telegraph, 13 August 2004.

34. ‘Moran shot dead in farm invasion’, East African Standard, 23 August 2004. The coverage in the two leading mainstream newspapers varied greatly, with the anti-establishment Standard covering the story in vastly more detail than the pro-establishment Daily Nation.

35. East African Standard, 23 August 2004.

36. East African Standard, 23 August 2004.

37. East African Standard, 23 August 2004.

38. East African Standard, 23 August 2004.

39. East African Standard, 23 August 2004.

40. Statement by Joseph ole Simel, Manyoito Pastoralists Integrated Development Organisation (MPIDO), corroborated by interviews in August 2004.

41. A few months after Kenya gained independence, first President Jomo Kenyatta addressed the white settler community in Nakuru, Rift Valley Province, who were very nervous about their future in Kenya. In a famous and oft-quoted speech, he assured them that in the new dispensation ‘We will forgive but never forget.’ This implied both that their interests would be protected, and that it was also safe to re-invest in independent Kenya. It is a promise that has been faithfully kept by the two succeeding regimes.

42. ‘Ranchers Ignorant of 999-year Lease’, Sunday Standard, 29 August 2004. A similar story ran on Kenya Television Network, the broadcasting arm of the Standard Group.

43. A popular example of this line of criticism can be found in the Sunday Nation op-ed column by political scientist, Mutahi Ngunyi.

44. During the struggle for the return of multiparty rule, the Moi regime often accused the multiparty movement of ‘being used by foreigners’.

45. ‘Maasai Incited by Selfish People’, East African Standard, 1 September 2004.

46. ‘Herders Ordered to Pay Sh 3.5 Million’, East African Standard, 1 September 2004.

47. ‘Land War Between Maasai, British’, East African Standard, 1 September 2004.

48. One of the Nilotic Kalenjin sub-groups whose traditional home is the Rift Valley.

49. Murunga and Nasong'o, ‘Bent on Self-destruction’.

50. Lynch, ‘The Fruits of Perception’, examines the constitutional referendum.