Behind the electric fence

Land rights is always a controversial issue

Eric Wainaina in front of one of the big ranches in the Laikipia district. "That is a long fence", say the Kenyan misician who sing about land rights in his new album.

The car on the rough sandy road is slowly getting nearer its destination. The man behind the wheel is the Kenyan musician Eric Wainaina. In a song in his newest album he sings about an issue concerning the entire East Africa land rights. Today he is going to meet a group of Maasai from Laikipia district who are struggling for access to pastures for their cattle. On the way to the Maasai village, Eric Wainaina drives through an area of 1 million acres of land owned by only 38 farmers. Electric fences as far as the eye can see ensure that no strange animals trespass to pasture on the illegal side.
As the musician arrives, people from the community gather in the shade of a cedar-tree to tell the guest about their current situation.

One of the Masai is Josephat Ndookoo. Each month he pays a local farmer 150 Kenya shillings for each cow grazing on the farmer's land. Josephat Ndookoo is struggling to pay for all of his 40 cows, each month he sells one or two cows in order to buy maize, sugar, beans and flour to feed himself, his two wives and eight children.
“I am lucky. I can provide my family with one meal a day,” says Josephat Ndookoo. “Many people lost their cows because they could not pay the farmers. Then the cows died or were sold. These families without cattle are suffering from hunger,” he says.
Because of these problems, the Maasai in Laikipia are eager to obtain ownership of the land where their cattle once grazed for free. They get help from the local NGO Osiligi which among others studies land history, trains paralegals and educates people in the Laikipia district on their basic rights. However, the local police and the district officer forced the Osiligi office in Dol Dol to close accusing them of inciting the Maasai community to cut down the fence trespassing to the forbidden vigorous land of pasture. This accusation is wrong, Josephat Ndookoo says. He is one of the pastoralists who have been trained as a paralegal.
“We cut down the fence when we were claiming our rights in August 2004. But we don't cut the fence no more. We speak our rights, and try to educate people to know their rights. But the politicians do not want us to educate the Maasai people. They think that if we gain knowledge we become dangerous. But without education you cannot change anything.”

On his way home Eric Wainaina is convinced that the paralegals are doing an important job. “They are right when they say that the biggest challenge for the Maasai people without land is lack of education,” says the musician.

Fighting together
Odenda Lumumba, the administrator of Kenya Land Alliance, is not in any doubt that redistribution of land is a crucial factor to reduce poverty in Kenya so as to avoid hunger and disease. But when dealing with a delicate question such as land rights you have to gather enough people to make demands so that their voices can be heard.
“Left on our own we are weaker against political, economical and social powers. If Osiligi fight alone they will lose, so we must fight together. Besides sharing knowledge, Kenya Land Alliance is basically here to tell people that they are not alone,” Odenda Lumumba says.