Conclusion

Abstract

In evicting the Maasai from the Rift Valley and Laikipia, the British clearly perpetrated a great injustice that has repercussions to this day.² After all, Britain made a solemn contract over land and broke its terms just seven years later, under the pretext that the Maasai themselves had asked to be relocated. The numbers of people who died during the first phase of the second move (up to August 1911) cannot be proved and may be negligible; the injustice goes deeper and wider than that. The northern sections lost the greater part of their land, and the wide range of habitat necessary for transhumant pastoralism. The extended Southern Reserve was an inferior substitute for the northern territory. Its western extension lacked sufficient permanent water sources, accessible forests and drought refuges, while disease vectors were more prevalent.

The time has come for the Maasai community to pause and review, reflect and evaluate their total losses during the horrific removal by the British Imperial Regime from their lands … It would not to be improper or imprudent for the Maasai to demand that they get back part of their pasture lands or be paid compensation … .¹