Along with livestock, land is central to the pastoralist economy and cultural identity. Historical dispossessions and alienation have been a continuing threat to the Maasai culture and livelihood, although the various Maasai sections have experienced land problems in different ways. Land issues are emotive and a source of conflict between neighbouring communities partly because of conflicting land use patterns, settlement efforts (schemes) and conservation.
Ilkerin Loita Integral Development Programme's (ILIDP's) has been and continues to be instrumental in organizing and mobilizing the Loita Maasai to defend their land and land-based resources against massive destruction and alienation instigated by the current land ownership regimes in Kenya that prefer individual as opposed to collective ownership. The programme’s land rights intervention sought to sensitize, organize and mobilize the Loita community to understand and safeguard their ancestral land from loss and unsustainable uses.
There is a need for secure land tenure for the Loita Maasai. As it is today their land is all trust land and they have no independent legal ownership. Nevertheless, ILIDP has been instrumental in halting historical and continued land alienation problems, including the intrusion of Purko Maasai into Loita ancestral land.
The plundering of forest and other natural resources in pastoralist lands is evident elsewhere, but Ilkerin Loita Integral Development Programme's (ILIDP's) has managed to mobilize and strengthen community efforts to ensure that their forest has remained fairly intact. The traditional system of grazing is still working and operational in Loita. Other resources like salt licks and water are based on communal ownership and rights of access. This has also ensured that the rangelands are not badly degraded. ILIDP was able to organize collective and direct action by the Loita community to stop several attempts by the Narok County Council and other powerful forces to alienate Enaimina Enkiyio Forest for conservation and tourism purposes. Compared with other pastoralist lands in Narok and Kajiado, the Loita land has remained fully intact.
Training and awareness creation efforts have adequately informed the Loita Maasai about land ownership structures and their pitfalls in Kenya. Through visits to Kajiado, the Loita Maasai were able to see the problems of group ranches and subsequently declined to subdivide their land.
Strategies and Approaches
The establishment of the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio Trust Company enabled the community to challenge the alienation of the forest from the community by the Narok County Council. It also served to galvanize the community leadership through the Loita elders council. The use of United Nations agreements such the Convention on Biological Diversity to lobby support from the international community on the Loita ownership of the Enaimina Enkiyio Forest was an important innovation.
The establishment of a community owned structure, the Purko-Loita Naimina Enkiyio Community Conservation and Development Project, has now taken over from the Enaimina Enkiyio Trust and is leading the initiative to develop a long-term community-based management strategy and institutional capacity to conserve the forest on Loita terms.
Along with livestock, land is central to the pastoralist economy and cultural identity. Historical dispossessions and alienation have been a continuing threat to the Maasai culture and livelihood, although the various Maasai sections have experienced land problems in different ways. Land issues are emotive and a source of conflict between neighbouring communities partly because of conflicting land use patterns, settlement efforts (schemes) and conservation.