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Paper short abstract

This paper seeks to interrogate the definition of development as seen from the experience and livelihood of the pastoralist communities in Laikipia, Kenya. Indigenous communities have often times been viewed as rejecting development projects, however, this is not mutually real.

Paper long abstract

Although millions of dollars are poured into "developing" pastoralists by NGOs and governments, often the results are not as expected. Is it that they can't be developed or is it that their definition of developed does not fit into contemporary capitalism? Or is it that they can only be developed and no one seems to know how to do it or is it that many of them are actually "developed" but the focus is only on those seen to be less developed? There has been a continuous fight between the natives in Laikipia, and parts of Samburu with the white settlers in recent years. The narrative has always been that the indigenous people are ‘savages’ who cannot coexist with other locals. This principate another issue; Kenya was colonized from 1920 until 1963, which is only forty years under foreign governance.

Guillaume Blanc describes Green colonialism as the fight against indigenous people who do not possess digital devices that are produced and sold by the West. This happens when we destabilize the set-up in the rural areas to fit into the modern western worldview by keeping the indigenous people away from their ancestral land which in turn leads to the violence experienced in recent years. When we curtail their movement, we practically sentence them to death by starvation. For the pastoralists, animals are a source of pride and identity, not just wealth. So how does development as we know it embraces or rather stifle this ancient way of life?