By Ben Ole Koissaba
Following the response by the World Bank Country office in Kenya regarding the forceful evictions and the denial of its involvement in the expansion of geothermal extraction in Narasha, the Maasai community have taken further steps to seek a just and long lasting solution to their quest for justice. The community takes cognizance of the government instituted committee to investigate and come up with a lasting plan to resolve the problem but given the history of government committees and commissions, the community sees this as a political ploy to delay the evictions and a strategy to use legal systems to evict the Maasai. To date and since the president visited the community, the families who lost their homes to the arsonists are still languishing in tents with no food and other basic needs including support from the government. The World Bank and other funders of any geothermal projects within Nakuru district need to be aware that the Maasai who are the Indigenous inhabitants of the area have claims dating back 1904 when they were forcefully evicted by colonialists. The lack of transparency on the part of KenGen regarding court cases that Maasai have filed further complicates the issue of land ownership. This implies that further development in disregard of the court cases is contempt of court and therefore an illegality.
Given the ongoing government and KenGen action of choosing to divide the Maasai community through bribing certain members of the community and inadequate response to the demand for compensation for past and current evictions, the community found it prudent to engage the World Bank Inspection Panel to investigate past and current activities of the World Bank and KenGen. This was done through a series of meetings held between the community representatives in the US and the World Bank Inspection Panel, the World Bank board of directors, members of the civil society, and Indigenous Peoples' representatives at the World Bank's Annual General Meeting on October 9, 2013. Conspicuously absent was the Kenyan representatives who did not attend any of the meetings.
The president of the World Bank and the managing director of International Finance Corporation recognized the need to look into the grievances raised and promised to investigate all claims regarding land grabs in Africa and to take the necessary measures as per policy to address the plight of the Maasai.
--Ben Ole Koissaba is a PhD Student in Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University and Founder Chair Maa Civil Society Forum in Kenya.
