Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
Gideon Keter
1 July 2011
Heritage minister William Ole Ntimama now claims the government has forcefully taken over land belonging to the Maasai in Mau Narok. Ntimama said that the land has been illegally handed over to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the Agricultural Development Corporation.
He said the two institutions have in the past been accused of handing over nearly all its farms to individuals. “It is only right to say this is a ploy to cheat wananchi when the land is to be transferred to the favoured individuals,” Ntimama said.
He further said police have been deployed to the Mau Narok land to guard about twenty tractors ploughing the land. He said the Maasai community lost the 2,000 acres in mid 1940s to the British troops who had returned after the Second World War. “We were forcefully removed from our grazing land of the Rift Valley to the so called Southern Reserves which were infested with tsetse flies and malaria,” he said.
“Hundreds of our young morans were killed by the British soldiers for trying to resist the infamous movement of the Maasai community.” He said that successive governments have discriminated against the Maasai community rendering them landless.
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Kenya: State Has Taken Over Maasai Land, Ntimama Claims