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Witness History

How a Maasai community in Kenya overcame a deadly drought

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2013, after losing most of their cattle, a Maasai community in Kajiado County formed an organisation to protect their land and culture.

It's called ‘Ildalalekutuk Maasai Action for Development' and was formed by Dalmas Tiampati.

He tells Megan Jones how the aim was to help the community become more resilient and find ways to protect the culture.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.

(Photo: Dalmas Tiampati. Credit: Maasai Action for Development)

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:07.0

An early start here. It's time to kick off.

0:10.0

Your day. Morning!

0:11.9

What a line-up.

0:13.3

Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show.

0:16.1

The crowd is loving this.

0:18.3

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind.

0:20.2

From morning chaos to match day commentary.

0:23.6

And everything in between.

0:25.0

BBC sounds packed with personality.

0:33.5

Hello, you're listening to Witness History with me, Megan Jones.

0:37.6

If you're already one of our regular listeners, you know the drill.

0:40.5

You can jump ahead a bit.

0:42.0

But if you're new here, then welcome.

0:44.4

Here's what we do.

0:45.4

We look at one moment in history and it's told by the people who were there,

0:49.0

with new Nyman episodes dropping every weekday.

0:51.8

So if you enjoy it, hit subscribe and turn on your push notifications

0:55.2

so you never miss us. Now, let's get to the program. This is the story of how one Marseille

1:01.1

community overcame a devastating drought that killed almost all of their livestock. We're starting in

1:08.9

2009 in Cacciardo County to the south of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

1:13.6

It was typically 100% a Maasai-dominated area.

...

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