Competent, But Ignored: Bringing Maasai Youth into Land Tenure Decision Making

In an effort to safeguard rangelands from encroachment by neighboring ethnic
groups, national elites, and the state, Maasai from southern Kenya have been
privatising collective holdings. This has led to widespread land sales, exclusion to
critical grazing resources and a disrupting of pastoral production systems. While
reports from different communities focus on outside acquisitions by land speculators,
national elites, and even foreign entities, privatisation has also given rise to a much
more intimate form of exclusion: young Maasai, who are officially excluded from
tenure decision making, grapple with enclosure in the wake of this dramatic tenure
change. Young people’s perspective on and experience with tenure reform has been
neglected in local, academic, and policy debates. Historical and cultural assumptions
of the child as incompetent and that young people lack interest in rural matters has
contributed to a view that their participation in land planning is unnecessary.
A study by Caroline Archambault shows
however, that many young Maasai in the
community of Elangata Wuas are not
only interested in rangeland tenure
issues but appear to be heavily vested in
maintaining rangeland-based livelihoods.
A series of essays on privatisation
from pupils in Standard 7 and 8 revealed
that while many view privatisation quite
favourably and see it as an important
means to facilitate a new, modern form
of pastoralism, like most adults, they fear
land sales, dispossession, and con#ict.