Pastoralism and wildlife

The whole history of Maasai relationships with the Governments which have taken over their country has been one of being forcibly pushed around. The process started with the Maasai of the Naivasha area of Kenya being removed from their ancestral grazing grounds to make room for Lord Delemere and his fellow European settlers. This was given a semblance of legality by drawing up an agreement which the Kenya Government persuaded the laibon (religious leader) Lenana to sign as Chief of all the Maasai — which, of course, he was not. Those who contested the issue took their case to the highest possible court, the British House of Lords, where it was rejected on the grounds that the 190*f agreement, which awarded the Naivasha area to the Maasai, was a treaty between two, sovereign peoples, the British and the-Maasai, and Was therefore not subject to legal process