Grant name: Revitalizing & Synergizing Traditional Justice and Peace-building Systems of Maasai Pastoralist Indigenous Communities in Kenya
Local partner: Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA)
Country: Kenya (East Africa)
Background and objective
Four broad institutions of governance are central to the socio-political and cultural organization of Maasai society, including for peace and conflict reconciliation namely: the Olosho (12 territorial sections); the Olgilata (Clan/kinship relation), the Olporrorr (the Age-Set) and the Enkidong (The Guard, office of the Prophet or Seer). Although each of these institutions have clear jurisdictions and functions, they also reinforce each other. While the traditional justice systems of Maasai pastoralist communities have served them for centuries, this system is under immense pressure to dissolve and ultimately disappear. These pressures emanate from formal schooling based on Western value systems, which takes Maasai children out of the community for most of their lives and demonizes customary institutions of decision-making and related values.
The project aims to enhance understanding, revitalization and application of the Maasai traditional justice system and its role in peace-building and conflict resolution in land and natural resource management; and build indigenous peoples’ capacity to engage with contemporary institutions of conflict resolution and peace-building in Kenya.
Local partner information
The history of ILEPA is embedded in the history of the land rights struggle of the Maji moto Group Ranch in Narok South, Southern Kenya. Its mission is to promote an indigenous peoples’ wellbeing, improved human rights, good governance and sustainable community-based development. Some of its most successful programs include Human Rights and Governance, Environment and Climate Change, Research and Livelihoods Support.
