What can you say about the land dispute in the Rift Valley? Is it true that British colonialists stole the land from the Masai? What happened then? Why hasn't the land been returned to the Masai yet? What do you think should be done to solve the conflict?
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I think it is really hard to find a solution to this problem. How can you restore land to somebody if it has been in somebody else's hands for such a long time? How can the Masai really prove the land belonged to their ancestors? Are there really documents saying that or is this just a Masai myth?
And also I think the issue is not only the question of rightful land ownership here. Some of the farmers who live on that land now have turned it into safari parks and people fear that if the Masai come back with their cattle, the wild animals will die out. And everybody knows how important tourism is for Kenya. Well, I doubt that that will ever be the case (as far as I know, wildebeest like eating the short grass left after the cattle have eaten the long grass), but this point just makes the whole issue more and more complicated.
Fact is, the question is no longer only whom the land belongs to, but also who will make the best of it.
Eric forgot to answer your first few questions.
I think the colonialists "stole" the land from the Masai. They talked them into a bargain the Masai never should have accepted but had to because they had been weakened so much by famine, war and cattle diseases. The colonial government took advantage of the weak position the Masai were in and made this 100 year contract in which they leased the land from the Masai. But now the 100 years are long over and the people living on the land still don't accept that they have to move on. I think the British should help solve this conflict and take sides with the Masai. After all it was them who caused the conflict.
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