Source: The Citizen

More than 2,000 Maasai women are taking a bold political stand in a move aimed at protecting community land rights. From March 27 until April 7, the women gathered in Magaiduru Village, one of the nine villages in Loliondo Division that has recently been declared by the government as a wildlife corridor, essentially prohibiting any use by local communities.

The women – some of whom walked for more than a day and half to reach Magaiduru – gathered to protest this decision and demand that the land in Loliondo be returned to them.

“Women are gathering and demonstrating because without land there is no life for them,” explained Mr Maanda Ngoitiko, executive director of the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC).

“They’ve been empowered over the years, and we know very well about what is happening and are therefore not willing to sit back as their livelihoods are stolen away from them,” he added.

For many years PWC, the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) and other civil society organisations in the area have worked to strengthen women’s rights and roles in their communities to help give them a voice in decision-making processes and promote equality.

While there have been many men involved in protesting the Loliondo land dispute, women have stood out as leaders and champions in taking a stand against the government’s decision to allot 1,500 square kilometers of community land bordering the Serengeti as a wildlife corridor.

The 2,000 women who gathered in Magaiduru have collected CCM membership cards and are continuing to do so to protest against the party.

“We don’t belong to any party, our party is our land,” said Ms Paraketo, one of the women protesters from Ololosokwan Village, among those on the disputed land.

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