My early association with the Maasai left me with a deep sense of heartbreak. Over the years, I came to believe that their ancestral lands had been steadily encroached upon, and that their generosity, hospitality, and, in many cases, poverty had left them vulnerable to exploitation.
My most profound encounter came in the early 1990s when I visited Kajiado and Loitokitok. There, I witnessed firsthand the frustrations surrounding the Nolturesh Water Project, which channels fresh spring water from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro near Loitokitok across more than 100 kilometres of Kajiado County to communities as far as Sultan Hamud. While the project brought much-needed water to many settlements, it also became a source of resentment among some local Maasai communities, who felt that they bore the environmental costs while receiving too little benefit themselves.
As I travelled through Loitokitok, I saw Maasai herders desperately searching for water for their cattle. Streams and springs that had once sustained generations of pastoralists had diminished, while the town itself endured frequent water rationing. As a fellow pastoralist of Somali heritage, the scenes before me were deeply moving. Watching exhausted men drive their thirsty cattle across long distances in search of water was heartbreaking, especially as enormous pipelines carried water away from the very communities living closest to its source.
Many local residents believed that political influence, corruption, and unequal development priorities had allowed this situation to persist. Whether entirely justified or not, the overwhelming feeling among the people I met was one of betrayal. They felt that the wealth flowing from their ancestral land had benefited others while they continued to struggle with water shortages, poverty, and neglect.
The images of that journey have never left me. They remain a painful reminder that development, however necessary, should never come at the expense of the dignity, livelihoods, and well-being of the very communities whose resources make it possible.
