The Maasai controlled the largest geographical area in precolonial Kenya. Their territory stretched from the northern Rift Valley to southern Kenya and into northern Tanzania. Nairobi was also part of Maasai territory.
In fact, the area now known as Uasin Gishu was part of Maasai territory. The name “Uasin Gishu” is a Maasai name meaning an area for grazing, and its capital city, Eldoret, derives from the Maasai word “Eldare,” meaning “stone river.”
The two main reasons the Maasai controlled the largest territory in precolonial Kenya are:
Military Dominance ~ The Maasai were fierce, relentless, highly mobile and marauding warriors. This made their neighbours to fear them greatly, often abandoning their land without a fight. In his book East Africa Protectorate, Charles Eliot notes that some Kamba villages lived on hills for fear of Maasai attacks and raids.
Pastoralist Lifestyle ~ Their cattle required vast grazing areas, which drove them to occupy expansive lands.
The Maasai later lost most of their land primarily through two agreements, which they were coerced or tricked into signing with the colonial government.
The Maasai Agreement of 1904 ~This agreement forced the Maasai to move into two reserves: Northern Reserve (Laikipia) and Southern Reserve (Kajiado and Narok). This vacated the central Rift Valley which later came to be known as “white highlands” for European settlers, whom the colonial government gave the land for free to the likes of Delemare who was given over 100,000 acres, to Grogan and Longham who were given around 120,000 acres and many others.
The Maasai Agreement of 1911 ~ This agreement forced the Maasai out of the Northern Reserve (Laikipia), opening it up for more white settlers, mainly ex-army officers and large-scale ranchers.
They didn’t own land in the sense we own land today. The populations and activities of most of other tribes did not necessitate them to have vast lands under their care. Bantus, for example simply moved from one area to the other if land became infertile or other hostile reasons came up. Even money as a concept; as we understand it today was unheard of.
This is the interpretation that the Europeans made, since they came from a place where land ownership was a thing. Occupying and having access to an area is very different from ownership as we know it today. Remember the Maasai collaborated with the colonizers, to settle intraclan rivalries between brothers Sendeyo and Lenana; something someone who ‘owned’ the land as a tribe wouldn’t exactly do. The Europeans were also shocked. Even to date the Maasai still practice communal land ownership. That says a lot about their interpretation of land ownership. Kenya is a Kamba word, did Kambas own Kenya?
Kenya is from Kirinyaga.. and in those days when the British hadn’t arrived to draw the present lines, ‘rangelands’ meant somwhere your cows ate grass at. It was considered your property by virture of nobody living there. Coz they were dead.
Get a Kamba to translate for you that Kirinyaga word to their language. The literal translation of it. Letter for letter. The history of our country is very interesting, despite the gaps that have not been well documented.
Do you think an idiot thinks what he will do after he beats you or kills you? The old maasai warriors simply used to burn down entire villages (after extracting the cattle) then the land would be free for grazing after the next rains.
These reserves were formalized after British colonial authorities split the Maasai territory in 1895, creating northern and southern zones. The map also marks neighboring tribes—Kikuyu, Kamba, Teita, Wa-Chaga, Wa-Hehe, Somali—and major landmarks like Mount Kenya, Lake Victoria, and Mombasa.
Colonial Impact: 1895–1920
Tribe
Territory Change (1895–1920)
Colonial Impact Summary
Maasai
Split into northern/southern reserves
Lost access to key grazing lands; forced relocation; treaties signed under duress
Kikuyu
Encroached by settler farms in Kiambu
Severe land alienation; led to early political mobilization and resistance
Kamba
Eastern lands remained relatively intact
Used as labor pool; less direct land loss but economic marginalization
Teita
Coastal and inland compression
Pressured by settler expansion and railway development
Wa-Chaga
Southern highlands near Kilimanjaro
Incorporated into German East Africa; later British control post-WWI
Wa-Hehe
Western borderlands
Resistance crushed by German forces; territory absorbed into Tanganyika
Somali
Northeastern frontier
Minimal direct control; used as buffer zone against Ethiopian influence
By 1920, the East Africa Protectorate was formally renamed Kenya Colony, solidifying British control and intensifying land alienation, especially in Kikuyu and Maasai regions.
