Protection of resources in marginalised areas essential

Tributes to the foremost Maasai community leader William Ole Ntimama are a stark confirmation that the old man had touched the lives of many Kenyans.

In some quarters, Mzee Ntimama had been vilified as a man spreading hate against certain Kenyans. He lived a political life where there was debate on whether his defence of his Maasai people was nationalistic or driven by ethnic considerations.

Whatever the case, my deep reflection of what the old man did reveals the anatomy of a true defender of his people. This country needs a team of firm believers in equity among all communities as a tool for peace and stability. Peace efforts that do not consider the sanctity of the rights of marginalised communities to their own resources cannot have meaningful results.

One of the contentious issues that defined the politics of Ntimama’s sunset years was the battle for the ecologically important Mau Forest Complex. This geographical landmark is a source of livelihood for more than 10 million people in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya and thousands of species.

Its reclamation, which meant eviction of settlers, brought a wedge among the communities that live there. Ntimama was categorical that the need for a place to call home by settler communities could not override the greater need of protecting the water tower, not just for today’s generation but for future human survival in the entire region.

When the process of restoring the complex was kicked off with planting of 25,000 seedlings in 2011 and a further 160,000 two years later, we supported this initiative.

It was not about the local community feeling threatened by the surging of others into their territory, but rather the need to rehabilitate the complex to avoid the ominous future that the continued destruction of the tower presented.

The political effect of the eviction of Mau settlers reverberated in the region and the divisions this matter brought went on to shape the outcome of the 2013 General Election.

The Mau will continue to have an impact on local political formations and that is why Ntimama and the then Prime Minister’s office found themselves on a collision course with some leaders.

Ntimama was an apt example of a leader who had stuck his neck out to be the single most influential and bold voice against resource disinheritance of marginalised communities by others.

Both Kajiado and Narok counties are replete with instances where local resources are under threat.

There is a dangerous trend in these counties where resources within these areas are not being enjoyed equally by those born and bred there and which could trigger a feeling of dispossession in future generations.

It is imperative to note that many communities have settled here and many children of non-indigenous people know no other home. They all belong here and need to share what nature has accorded their motherland, without being classified as lesser residents.Political leaders must not be blinded by the need for urbanisation, for example, at the expense capping the extent to which local communities need to dispose their natural resources.

Marginalised communities need external support to raise the standard of their lives and introduce new and modern ways of doing things if only to make a few steps towards catching up with others.

We must protect the land rights of these communities even as we seek to encourage investors to come in and promote development. Failing to protect them exposes them to exploitation by the bourgeois class which could in turn breed more poverty.

Already, some areas in Kajiado are facing resistance to new development. Imperatively, the Maasai are pastoralistic and the development coming on their land should be accompanied by serious efforts to change their way of economic survival so that the demand for grazing lands can inversely reduce.

The national government must rise to the occasion and develop policies that will balance the intricate matter of development and disinheritance of marginalised communities.

Parliament should be willing to support initiatives that reduce conflicts among residents of cosmopolitan counties over what they ought to be sharing without jeopardising the future of others.

The ideals Ntimama stood for revolved around protection of a community’s natural resources in the face of a rapidly changing socio-econo-political landscape.

That he had categorically told the Maasai people that Jubilee should be their next political house is an indicator the numbers will significantly change the arithmetic in the region in 2017.