Stealth Game: Community Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya ft. Abdinoor Dima Jillo, Isaiah Biwott and Violet Matiru

For Land & Life: The Oakland Institute Podcast

This episode explores the devastating impact privatized, neocolonial wildlife conservation and safari tourism have had on Indigenous pastoral communities, specifically in Northern Kenya.

Since its founding in 2004, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) has set up 43 "community" conservancies on over 42,000 square kilometers of land in Northern and Coastal Kenya – nearly 8 percent of the country's total land area. Although terms like “participatory,” “community driven,” and “local empowerment” are extensively used by NRT, this episode amplifies the voices of pastoralist communities who have been dispossessed of their ancestral lands, through corruption, cooptation, and sometimes through intimidation and violence, to create wildlife conservancies for conservation dollars. Guests include:

• Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute Executive Director and author of the Stealth Game report
• Abdinoor Dima Jillo, member of the Borana Council of Elders in Isiolo County, Kenya
• Isaiah Biwott, community member Tugen community, Baringo County, Kenya
• Violet Matiru, Executive Director, Millennium Community Development Initiatives, Kenya

Host: Andy Currier

Report available: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/stealth-game-community-conservancies-devastate-northern-kenya