Let the Kenyan Maasai make their own choices

The Maasai community has been ridiculed by some due to its devotion to culture and the old perception they are not keen on modern education.

Even today, some Maasai men still roam towns in shukas with knives tucked in their garments. Actually, in some social circles, calling someone a Maasai has been considered an insult.

However, it is undeniable that the Maasai have seen the light, so to speak. Prof James Ole Kiyiapi, a Maasai, contested the presidency in 2013. Who would have imagined this a few years ago?

Maasai leaders have emerged on the premise of defending the interests of the community. The late William Ole Ntimama was a fierce defender of their rights.

When everyone shied away from the Mau evictions to protect their political careers, Ntimama was resolute no one should be allowed to live in the water tower.

Thus, it is annoying that after Ntimama’s demise, some leaders are keen to take advantage of their own community more than they want to help. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaiserry appears determined to take over the role of the community’s spokesman, which Ntimama held for decades.

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Nkaiserry and Kajiado North MP Moses Ole Sakuda claim Ntimama met local leaders before he died and gave the political direction the community should take.

We don’t know if the meeting took place and they are not giving us Ntimama’s final message anymore, maybe because they are still crafting it. Even ODM leader Raila Odinga has not been left behind; he claimed Ntimama called him after attending a meeting at State House to inform him he was still in ODM. The three have since gone slow on their claims.

But it is the tone in which the two leaders made the remarks that takes us back to the dark days when Maasais were looked at as people who cannot think for themselves.

Of course we know which political outfit Nkaiserry wants the community to support. In an interview on a local TV station, Sakuda said they respect the elders in their community and that since Ntimama had told them the presidential candidate to support in 2017, they have no option but to do so.

Yet the Maasai who will do what Nkaiserry and Sakuda want will not necessarily be doing Ntimama’s will in what could turn out to be a case of using the dead to blackmail the whole community.

However, we all know Ntimama as a brave leader who never shied away from controversy. If he wanted the Maasai to switch political allegiance, he would have said it.

If he was able to declare ‘outsiders’ must leave Maasai land knowing too well the magnitude of the offence, how hard would it have been for him to tell the Maasai to leave ODM and join Jubilee?

Leaders should stop taking the Maasai for a ride. One of the ways Raila, Nkaiserry and Sakuda can defend the rights of the Maasai would be to allow them decide their destiny because there is no assurance they will be safe in Jubilee or CORD.

By saying the Maasai ‘must’ vote the way Ntimama reportedly wanted means Nkaissery did not expect a contrary opinion. To him, the Maasai cannot think for themselves.

The challenges the Maasais have faced over the years have remained the same, whether they are in Government or in the Opposition. Jubilee and CORD have not offered a solution, perhaps because leaders in this part of the world thrive on the misery of their people.

It is therefore not in the interest of Nkaissery or Raila that Maasais get their land rights so they can always be campaign items.

Why would one or two people believe they own the monopoly of wisdom to think on behalf of a whole community?

We all know it is to the benefit of Nkaissery and Sakuda if Maasais supported the Government in 2017.