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08/25/2004:

"Police use teargas at Masai rally"

Guardian UK
Kenyan police fired teargas to disperse about 100 Masai tribesmen marching to the British high commission to demand the return of land they say is due to them after a colonial-era treaty expired this month.

The Kenyan lands minister said a 1904 treaty giving ancestral Masai land to British settlers had yet to expire. The treaty says it "shall be enduring as long as the Masai as a race shall exist", Amos Kimunya told reporters. "They're just misguided," he said.

Police intercepted about 100 Masai, wearing traditional bright red robes, as they tried to deliver a petition to the British high commissioner, Edward Clay. An earlier attempt to reach the building was rebuffed on August 13.

On Saturday police shot and killed a 70-year-old and wounded four other Masai grazing cattle on private land they say is theirs. The Masai have vowed to take their case to Kenyan and international courts. full article