The Maasai were a UNPO member between 2004 and 2012. 

Represented at UNPO by the Maasai Women for Education and Economic Development (MAWEED), the Maasai people used their participation to highlight the intersection of Indigenous, gender, and land rights in Kenya and Tanzania. The Maasai, a semi-nomadic pastoralist people, have faced persistent challenges stemming from land dispossession, restricted grazing access, and marginalisation in national policy frameworks. Large tracts of ancestral land have been appropriated for wildlife conservation, tourism, and state development projects without adequate consultation or compensation, undermining the community’s traditional livelihoods and mobility. 

Through MAWEED’s advocacy, particular emphasis was placed on the empowerment of Maasai women and youth, who face additional barriers in education, healthcare, and political participation. The organisation sought to promote access to education for girls, challenge early marriage practices, and ensure that Maasai women could participate in community decision-making processes. Within UNPO, MAAWEED drew attention to the gendered dimension of Indigenous rights, linking local issues of economic exclusion and cultural discrimination to broader international norms of the rights of Indigenous peoples. UNPO provided a platform for Maasai representatives to engage with international institutions on issues such as the implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in development planning, recognition of customary land tenure, and the safeguarding of pastoral mobility routes. 

The Maasai are a Nilotic-speaking people traditionally inhabiting the Great Rift Valley region of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Renowned for their distinctive dress, pastoral traditions, and strong communal identity, the Maasai have maintained many elements of their cultural heritage despite a century of political and economic pressures. Central to Maasai identity is cattle pastoralism, which remains both an economic foundation and a spiritual symbol linking people, land, and livelihood. Cattle are valued not only for subsistence but as measures of wealth, social status, and kinship exchange, reflecting a worldview in which land and community are inseparable. 

The Maa language, part of the Eastern Nilotic branch, serves as a unifying element across clan and national boundaries, though bilingualism in Swahili and English is increasingly common. Distinctive ceremonial practices, such as the Eunoto (warrior initiation) and Enkipaata (rite of passage for boys), mark key stages in life and reinforce the age-set system that structures Maasai society. Dress and adornment, particularly the use of bright shúkà cloths and intricate beadwork, express identity, social status, and aesthetic values that remain integral to community pride and recognition. Religion among the Maasai centres on Enkai (or Engai), a monotheistic deity associated with fertility, rain, and the well-being of people and livestock. Traditional beliefs coexist with Christianity and modern education, reflecting the community’s adaptive resilience. Despite external pressures, the Maasai continue to defend their cultural autonomy through the revitalisation of language, education initiatives, and local institutions. 

The Maasai are an Indigenous Nilotic people whose ancestors migrated southward from the Nile Valley region, likely between the 15th and 17th centuries, eventually settling across the highlands and plains of what are now southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the Maasai had established themselves as one of the dominant pastoral societies of East Africa, their cattle-based economy and warrior ethos shaping both regional trade and interethnic relations. Through a confederation of clans and age-set structures, the Maasai maintained an egalitarian social order guided by customary law and communal land management. 

The late 19th century brought dramatic upheaval. British and German colonial expansion, coupled with epidemics such as rinderpest (which decimated cattle herds), weakened Maasai political and economic power. Colonial treaties in 1904 and 1911 with the British government in Kenya resulted in the forced relocation of Maasai communities from large areas of their ancestral lands to designated “reserves.” These displacements paved the way for European settler agriculture and wildlife conservation, fragmenting Maasai territory and undermining their mobility-based pastoral system. Following independence in the 1960s, both Kenya and Tanzania adopted national land and development policies that continued to marginalise pastoralist groups. The creation of national parks and private ranches further restricted access to traditional grazing lands and water sources. In many cases, Maasai communities were displaced without compensation or meaningful participation in decision-making, a pattern that persists into the present day. Efforts to sedentarise the Maasai through government resettlement schemes and agricultural programs have often conflicted with their way of life.