PASTORALIST ALLIANCE KENYA

The Pastoralist Alliance for Resilience and Adaptation Across Nations (PARAAN KENYA) was formed in 2018 as a social justice movement to consolidate a collective voice on the inclusion and rights of Indigenous peoples to promote self-action for the mutual benefit and well-being of Indigenous peoples and minorities.

Paraan is a Maasai word used by all Maasai territorial sections (in Kenya and Tanzania), meaning “mutual sharing and support”. It is a social strategy commonly used across all pastoralist territories to uplift, support, and stabilize members of the community who have been hit hard by a calamity. Indigenous Peoples worldwide have their strategies and means of sharing and supporting each other. This is what makes them resilient. Therefore, the meaning of PARAAN is more than just a name.

As stewards of their land, Indigenous peoples and minority groups in Northern Kenya and across the region have sustainably governed natural resources for generations in ways that are compatible with their food systems, cultures, and social organizations.

However, in recent years, landscapes within the region that had been historically used and managed by Indigenous peoples and minorities have come under unprecedented external pressures, like mega-infrastructure projects and large-scale investments that are seriously affecting the unique rights of Indigenous peoples and, by extension, their food and livelihood sovereignty. These new pressures on land and resources, coupled with lasting marginalization rooted in colonial rule, have rendered pastoralism and other indigenous livelihood systems less resilient and highly susceptible to climate change and its related shocks.

In addition to the loss of land and natural resources, there has also been a loss of traditional practices and lifestyles, including losses of inter-generational transfers of traditional knowledge, losses of social organization, losses of traditional institutions, and losses of cultural and spiritual practices – all of which contribute to perpetuating the structural inequalities that work to the disadvantage of indigenous peoples and minorities.

Addressing the above challenges requires dedicated efforts, and multi-pronged approaches based on a combination of skillsets that is difficult to have within a single organization. These complexities also require teamwork and joint approaches for improved effectiveness. This was the reason behind forming PASTORALIST ALLIANCE KENYA as an Alliance, which is so that members can design pathways to address challenges and build a voice around issues.