Tribesmen vow to invade ranch
Maasai leaders today vowed to invade a ranch run by a grandson of one of Kenya's first white settlers to press for his re-arrest and prosecution in the killing of a game park warden who was Maasai.
The leaders said they were mobilising supporters to sit in on the grounds of the ranch run by Thomas Patrick Gilbert Cholmondeley, whose grandfather, Britain's Lord Delamare, was one of the first white settlers in Kenya. Cholmondeley's ranch is one of the biggest in Kenya.
Protesters will "settle there until we get justice", said Maasai Councillor Jackson Ole Sunguya.
Earlier this week, a High Court judge dropped murder charges against Cholmondeley after Attorney General Amos Wako said there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute him for the April 19 killing of a warden investigating poaching on the ranch. After dropping the charges, the judge said he would schedule an inquest into the killing.
"We have no confidence in the attorney general as a custodian of law," said Ben Koisaba of the Maa Civil Society, a group that fights for the rights of the Maasai and other minority communities.
Members of the Maasai community plan to demonstrate tomorrow and blockade roads leading to one of Kenya's main game reserves, the Maasai Mara, in an effort to demand justice. They protest was to culminate in the invasion of Cholmondeley's 46,000-acre ranch.
Nakuru District Police Chief Joshua Keyum said the force has stepped up security at the Maasai Mara Game Reserve and other areas frequented by tourists in an effort to ensure that tourism is not affected by the protests.
Last month, a Maasai tribal leader accused Cholmondeley's family of oppressing his people for generations. The Maasai claim that land occupied by Kenya's white settlers and their families was stolen from them in 1904, soon after Britain colonised the country.
Kenya gained independence in 1963, but the Maasai say that successive governments have done nothing to address their grievances. Last year they launched a campaign to reclaim their land using peaceful, legal means.
