By Melita Tanchu
With a fast changing world and the challenges of the 21st C, it is time the Maa community relooked into how to fit in today’s world.
Long gone are the days when a herd of cattle and a large chunk of land defined a real Maasai.
During the dry spells, the Maasai is the hardest hit, moving with our families in search of greener pasture.
School going children have to move along with their families and miss attending classes for days.
During the search for pasture, families have been separated as the able bodied men abandon their families in a futile mission to save their starving animals.
Upon return, they have nothing except the walking stick used to drive the cattle. Sadly, they come back with 90 per cent of the herd gone.
My father lost approximately 300 cattle to the famine and the cost of buying animal feed is unthinkable.
Keeping of large herds of cattle, our main source of livelihood is slowly coming to an end and the youth must come to terms with this reality.
Our only remedy is to reduce over reliance on cattle farming and invest in other sectors and education must top the priority.
Though education of a Maa child is a largely a failed sector, the youth must take the lead in advocating for the same.
Majority of my classmates at Maparasha Primary School between 2003 and 2010 dropped out either in primary school or secondary school.
Those who finished secondary school did not meet the threshold of pursuing further education and eventual training.
With our herds gone and education not yet embraced, we are left wandering in the wilderness.
Where is the Maa community heading to? Is it not into the exploitation of the sand harvesters that I witness daily? Is it not to the state of being foreigners in our own land through selling of land?
Is it not to absolute poverty that can be likened to the stateless Rohingya community in Myanmar? Think about that deeply.
The issue of land selling has become a preoccupation in the region and very soon, we will turn squatters.
Sadly, this craze driven by the need to become millionaires overnight has turned many from large land owners into depression.
After spending all the land sale proceeds, they are left penniless and desperate.
Former Governor Dr David Nkedianye tried to reduce fight the menace and hope the new governor Hon Joseph Ole Lenku tries his bit.
With a charismatic, vibrant and youthful deputy Martin Moshisho, it is my hope they will rid some cartels by the name ‘land brokers’ who have been behind this for a long time now.
The Maa community is under a serious threat and massive wastage of young minds.
We must stop the misguided notion that solutions can only come from leaders.
Let us lead from the front by embracing education and keep the number of cattle we can comfortably take care of.
Keeping 100 cows only to be wiped away during the dry spell does not portend well for us.
Nevertheless, if the county government serves its people effectively and everybody feels the impact of devolution especially on the education sector which is still very low, we will, be able to overcome our challenges.
I want to share of a pearl of Native American Wisdom.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.”A fight is going on inside me,” he told the boy.” It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One is Evil-he is anger, envy, sorrow, self-pity, guilty, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.” He continued, “The other is Good-he is joy, peace, empathy, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you- and inside any other person too.”
The young boy thought about for a minute and asked his grandfather, “which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “the one you feed.”
