BREAKING NEWS: Historic Mau Narok Case in Court
December 1, 2011: On November 9, the trial for the return of ancestral land to the Maasai people was heard for the first time in Kenyan court. The hearing was itself a major victory for the Maasai community in its efforts to regain land occupied under British colonial rule and then reoccupied by wealthy Kenyans shortly after Indepdence in 1963. The community filed suit for the return of 30,000 acres of this land at a place called Mau Narok in April 2010, and since that time Maasai people at Mau Narok–men, women and children, have been threatened, beaten, jailed and even killed in an apparent effort to settle the issue outside of court. The Maasai community has stood strong. It has maintained a commitment to non-violence, and to its singular goal of receiving a fair hearing of this issue in Kenyan court. In the context of the court battle, a movement of Maasai people has coalesced around the Mau Narok case. On November 9, the case was moved to the Court on Human Rights, and the next hearing date is set for December 15th. Many eyes in Kenya and the world are watching this case, which is considered to be an acid test of Kenya’s court, newly reformed under the Constitution passed in July of 2010.
Maasai Civil Rights Movement Fights for Ancestral Land!
History has delivered a moment of opportunity to the Maasai community of Kenya not seen for the past 100 years, the chance to regain ancestral land stolen under British colonialism and retaken by wealthy and powerful Kenyans at the time of Independence. Seizing the opportunity, the Maasai community has organized a movement for civil rights that promises not only the return of this land, but sets precedent for other communities in Kenya and elsewhere. Maasai communities moved their cattle back to unused parts of Mau Narok after the release in 2008 of research which confirms that the land’s occupation is illegal under international law and Kenya’s own law. Following the December 3, 2010 assassination of long time land rights activist Moses Ole Mpoe in the context of this case, the Maasai community began to gather. Through the past year, thousands of Maasai people have met for education, conflict resoluation and non-violence training, prayer and organizing. In February, 15,000 Maasai people gathered at Mau Narok from as far away as Samburu, Amboseli and the border of Tanzania, to show support for the case: this was the largest gathering of Maasai people since before the colonial occupation of Kenya. 
Photo: Moses Ole Mpoe speaks at a rally in Mau Narok in November, 2010.
See this article by Nora Nesoba for the Global Press Institute:
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