The Price of Being Forgotten?

1. The Price of Being Forgotten? Experiences from the Maasai Pastoralists of Kajiado Stephen ole Tipanko Chairman, IWRUA

2. 1. Education Who? • Government in promoting pastoralists education (rhyming with migration); • Cultural bias towards pastoralism and not education by the Maasai;

3. Education Contd Effects: • Inadequate knowledge on exploitation of natural resources; • Unsustainable use of natural resources (sand sales, felling of trees, disposal of minerals such as gypsum, quarry stones etc) • Low cost disposal of natural resources e.g. gypsum, marbles, limestone, • Lack of knowledge on value additions e.g. in milk, meat, minerals, livestock etc • Low levels of land use diversification e.g horticulture, poultry, agroforestry (ASAL), zero grazing,

4. 2. Cultures Who? • Maasai changing lifestyles; • Government policies focus on conventional knowledge;

5. 2. Cultures Contd Effects • lack of factoring in of local laws and justice dispensation; • Leadership on natural resources is based on conventional and other interests; • Indigenous foods have been sidelined leading to part malnutrition; • Traditional ways of natural resources management have been sidelined, leading to haphazard access and use; • Controls in access and use through Ilooshon have been discarded- it is now only individual v individual; • Collective responsibility on natural resources has disappeared • -Indigenous knowledge and technology, songs, dances, folk tales to educate on resources has dissappeared, .

6. 3. Social Resources Who? Government (through its policies) Effects • dialogue on common resources has been eroded; • common orientations on natural resources disrupted; • Relationships and networks • -Leadership and management of natural resources no longer discusses common resources but individual • -Family roles in natural resources management for equal access has been sidelined; • ownership of resources has been individualized; • poverty is more of an individual problem than communal; • discplinein destruction of resources and access is not respected. • It is the court season that is now supreme;

7. 4. Leadership Who? • National Political system • Local traditional political interests • Civil society interests • Gender concerns • Elitism

8. Leadership Contd Effects • Exploitations of local by politician who favour big investors • Investors funding politician • Rising levels of corruption in access and use of natural resources; • Loss of land • Loss of water resources • Loss of vegetation • Loss of livestock holding grounds • Loss of forestry land • Loss of wildlife corridors • Loss of land to wildlife

9. 5. Infrastructure Who? Government Effects: • poor access to locales of natural resources; • lack of developments for exploitation of natural resources; • non discovery of natural resources; • inadequate marketing of natural resources; • inadequate knowledge flow on natural resources exploitation; • exploitation by those with knowledge; • limited knowledge on land use potentials; • inadequate address on natural resources conflicts;

10. Ashe Oleng!