question_answer

How did the Maasais of northern Kenya lose their grazing lands?         

Answer:

(i) Before colonial times, Maasail and stretcted over a vast area from North Kenya to the steppes of northern Tanzania.

(ii) In 1885, it was cut into half by an international boundary between Britain and Germany,

(iii) The best grazing grounds were gradually taken over for white settlements and Maasais were pushed into a small area in South Kenya and North Tanzania.

(iv) The British encouraged the local people to expand cultivation. Thus, pasturelands were turned into cultivated fields.

(v) By the end of the colonial rule, large areas of grazing lands were turned into game reserves. Pastoralists were not allowed to enter these reserves; they could neither hunt nor graze their cattle in these areas.