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It is more than what the eye sees. This is what our land is. This is what our forefathers had left to us.
Investigative documentary on Maasai land fraud and carbon credit projects threatening communal land in Kajiado, Kenya.
Key Takeaways
- Carbon credit projects can mask large-scale land grabbing and corruption in indigenous communities.
- Generational divides within Maasai communities complicate land ownership and project acceptance.
- Promises of individual land titles are used as incentives but may disenfranchise younger generations.
- Youth activism is critical in resisting exploitative land deals under the guise of climate initiatives.
- International climate finance mechanisms need greater scrutiny to prevent exploitation of vulnerable communities.
Summary
- The documentary explores the conflict over Maasai community land in Kajiado County, Kenya, focusing on the controversial carbon credit projects.
- Maasai youth oppose the subdivision and leasing of communal land for carbon offsetting, fearing landlessness and loss of heritage.
- Powerful political elites and international organizations are implicated in a silent land grab under the guise of carbon finance.
- The Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch, home to over 1,000 Maasai households, is a focal point of the conflict and land fraud allegations.
- Promises of individual title deeds and financial payouts were used to gain support for the carbon projects but led to internal divisions.
- Violent clashes erupted on April 30, 2025, when youth protested a signing ceremony for the Kajiado Carbon Range Lands Project.
- The documentary reveals historical irregularities and fraud in land management dating back over 15 years.
- The carbon credit project by Souls for the Future Africa was supposed to bring financial benefits but instead fueled mistrust and conflict.
- Investigative methods included document analysis, interviews, satellite imagery, and OSINT techniques.
- The film highlights the broader issue of 21st-century land colonization through climate finance mechanisms.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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If this land would be subdivided, 90% of the young people would be left landless.
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Without a carbon act, there's no way Souls for the Future can come and legally grab land in Kajiado. But we created that act to pave the way for them.
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We did not even know that there was a connection between carbon and land fraud. [music] 19th century, you come with guns. 21st century, you come and tell them you've come to save them. [music] And you paid our legislators to come up with the laws
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that favor your saviorism. Kenya's next significant export will be carbon credits. And that is how you colonize a country in the 21st century.
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[snorts] What happens when a community's desire to own their land meets corruption and global climate finance?
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Over the course of 6 months and several trips to Kajiado County, Africa Uncensored and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project dug deeper in search of answers on the growing fractures among Maasai communities living in Kajiado.
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Analyzing hundreds of documents, conducting interviews with key figures, and utilizing satellite imagery and other OSINT techniques, on the face of it, Maasai youth were opposed to a controversial carbon project. In reality, that was only the tip of the iceberg. Powerful and
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connected political elites in Kenya are executing a massive silent land heist while major international organizations either knowingly or unknowingly provide cover under the guise of carbon offsetting projects.
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Only one son. 1984. 1994 to Ol Nyokie Group Ranch. Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch.
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Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch. Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch. Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch.
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My father was a vice chairman of Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch. No any conflict. Once we had our green card, we got our individual benefits.
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To come and get some grounds and buy a to waiver. Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch.
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Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch. Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch. Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch.
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So I've gotten to have well understanding about this place and the people in this place.
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I have witnessed a lot of irregularities happening in this place when I was a young boy, when I didn't have capacity to mobilize people against that. Like many years ago, like 15, 18 years ago, there was a daylight robbery where the then
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committee, which was being led by former chairman Sakaya, and his committee came to this place and told people to pay for their title deeds because they were ready for dispatch and stuff.
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At that moment, people did a lot of off-selling. Men, you could sell your sheep, you would sell your goat, you would sell your livestock generally, so that you would acquire your title deed.
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And you can imagine, even widows were conned and kids without fathers were conned. There were no title deeds that were issued. There was no any refunding done. Things got out of hand, I think, in 2023 when we have been
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having sit-downs thinking of how we can salvage this land from land grabbing. So there was information that the current committee is using that mandate that they were given by the people to subdivide this land to them. Being a young person from
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this community, having in mind that the register was closed in 1994, so people of my age cannot be our group ranch members, I mean beneficiaries, if the subdivision would go through.
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That automatically raised a lot of questions that wait, but we are many than those who have land, so where are we going to stay in?
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While we were having those thoughts in mind and consolidating them, bringing them together to make a larger sense, things got out of hand when the carbon credits thing was introduced to us.
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Several people were injured after chaos erupted in Kajiado Magadi area. Pastoralist communities in Kenya, such as the Maasai, have long lived on vast communally owned lands, moving with their livestock based on the seasons. Some have organized themselves into group ranches with a register of
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members and a local management committee. In Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch, home to more than 1,000 Maasai households, a generational divide has been brewing. Over the past few years, carbon credit projects have taken root in the larger Kajiado area. And while
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they were previously welcomed, these ventures are turning into flash points of conflict. Matters came to a head on April 30th, 2025, when hundreds of youth shut down a meeting in which the Kajiado Carbon Range Lands Project by Souls for the
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Future Africa was set to secure its entry into the Ol Ol Nyokie Group Ranch.
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We are here today for a meeting that was supposed to be a meeting between a company that wants them to sign their land over to them for the next 40 years to lease their land for carbon credits.
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But instead, the young men here, I'm told it's mostly the Gen Zs, have come out in large numbers to protest this.
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And in fact, they have told their parents if they sign, then there will be trouble. KRCP had already signed deals with other neighboring group ranches. On the face of it, the Maasai youth had simply rejected the entry of a
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controversial carbon project. However, as our investigation found, their actions had also exposed unprecedented land fraud perpetrated by powerful figures.
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Land to point a finger to the Maasai. Someone. So violent. Gideon is among Gen Z Maasai youth who mobilized to shut down the signing ceremony. We asked questions which were assumed to be disrespect. In 2025, we again heard about Souls for Future
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Africa in our place. They came, did a meeting in a serial, and then they said we are going to sign this agreement, whether these young people want it or not.
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They came, told the older people that these young people are being misled, they are being used by people who are working. They made a vow that they are going to sign an agreement, they are going to sign an agreement, whether we
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want it or not. So while they did that, they were told to collect signatures of those who would want to sign the agreement, 600, so that they would meet the 70% expected quota. While they had that, they made a vow, we also made a
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vow that whatsoever would be the extreme, we are ready for that, provided this agreement would not be signed. So we said, while they would be signing that agreement, we would be rioting against it. So we made a vow,
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they also made a vow. So they planned the 30th of April, 2025, to be that day.
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So while they did that, we went to the area they had set where they would be having the event. We went there.
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Definitely, we are younger. We are faster than them. I would say smarter than them, for lack of a better word. While they came in the morning, we had a disagreement in the morning.
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And we had an actual physical war against them. And it was too bad because that was an extreme. At least seven people sustained injuries and had to be rushed to hospital after the young protesters
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stormed the event and scuppered the planned signing of the agreement. David Nchui, chairman of the group ranch and a key proponent of the project, told the press that they had expected to receive an initial payout of 17 million
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shillings from Souls for the Future Africa upon signing the agreement, which was to be used to pay a land surveyor for the group ranch's subdivision.
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This would allow members to receive long-sought-after individual title deeds and transition from communal ownership to individually owned land.
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Members of the group ranch weren't just sold on the carbon project. They were promised title deeds that would allow them to own the land and transact with it if they so wished.
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One key here is that they would finally be able to sell the land, which many of them wanted to do. [music]
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[music] [music] This was the deal according to Chairman Chui. The 17 million shillings promised by Souls for the Future Africa would have paid a land surveyor, Geoflex Consultants, owned by former Kajiado County Chief Sur
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would have enabled registered members to get title deeds and the associated benefits of owning their own land. They would be free to sell parts of it if they wanted to. In exchange, Souls for the Future would undertake soil carbon
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removal in the area. This involves managing grazing patterns to preserve vegetation, thereby generating carbon credits for sale.
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The benefits would be shared with the community. Souls for the Future was a key partner of the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project, which, according to the Carbon Database Offsets DB, sold credits worth tens of millions of dollars to companies including
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Netflix and [music] Meta. A win-win, you might think. But you would be wrong. What had been hidden from the community was a dangerous secret that would stain the partnership and widen the generational divide.
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Africa Uncensored and OCCRP conducted an analysis of over 100 documents and interviewed key players including members of four different group ranches in Kajiado. One of the documents is a contract signed between the Oldonyokie Group Ranch and the surveyor, Geoflex
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Consultants, explicitly stating that each member shall get an equal and appropriate share of the land in accordance to the scheme plan or scheme plans to be prepared by the surveyor.
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Another is an aerial list prepared by the surveyor and stamped by the Kajiado Lands Registry, which ultimately determines the beneficiaries of land allotments in the subdivision process.
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Its analysis would reveal a highly skewed process, as well as numerous connected players who stood to benefit even as many of the community's youth miss out entirely.
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Before the carbon project's entry, rumors of the leaked aerial list had sparked an uproar within the Oldonyokie community as it appeared to show that numerous non-members were set to benefit from the subdivision.
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The shadowy figures behind the companies and non-members remained unknown until now. Our dive into the ownership of these companies revealed connections to several prominent figures.
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Among them is a known proxy of the family of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, Rose Waruhiu, whose companies Midlands Limited and Pine Herb Limited were allocated a total of 360 acres in Oldonyokie. Another notable company on the list was Elnum Business Solution
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Limited. It is owned by Mr. Rotich Wilson Kipngeno and Ms. Emily Chepkirui Kiprotich. One of the directors of Elnum Business Solutions, Emily Chepkirui Kiprotich, also co-owns a business, Admina Agencies, with Edna Chelangat Lenku, the wife of Kajiado Governor
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Joseph Olelenku. The wife of Group Ranch Chairman Daniel Chui, Naomi Gotiek, and another official, Gotiek Ole Meshululu, were the single largest individual land beneficiaries, with the chairman's wife allocated a total of 780 acres. Ole Meshululu was allocated 363 acres.
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Moses Meria is a member of Oldonyokie Group Ranch who has been central in organizing against both the land subdivision and the carbon project.
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It will be easy for them to steal the land, ensure that survey fees are paid, and ensure that people do not know.
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In get it out of your system because if you come into carbon, uh carbon credits are promising. They were promising to pay us 17 million if you're giving us $2 per hectare.
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To do was We had a meeting in Nazarian. Responding to queries from Africa Uncensored, Souls for the Future sought to distance itself from [music] the land governance issues in Oldonyokie. While admitting that its officials had taken part in community meetings where the use
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of funds from the project to pay for land subdivision was discussed, the organization said it was up to the community to decide on their priorities and then decide on how to use their funds. The issues that we observed
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pertaining land politics are the ones that prevented us from starting the project in Oldonyokie, Souls for the Future said. It is this very reason why we asked them to come to an agreement with themselves before entering into an
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agreement with Souls for the Future Africa. The surveyor, Geoflex Consultants, owned by Charles Ameso Angira, was also set to receive several parcels of land.
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The company [music] is privately owned by Angira, who until 2015 served as Kajiado's County Surveyor.
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Some allotments were registered under both Geoflex and [music] the Group Ranch, while others were solely under Geoflex. It raises the question that if the funds from the carbon project were meant to pay Geoflex, then why was the company allocated massive amounts of
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land? Concerns were also raised on questionable allotments for public amenities. It is only land grabbing.
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Only In response to queries from Africa Uncensored on the subdivision process, Geoflex Consultants owner, Charles Ameso Angira, said he was unable to respond since the issues raised are before a court in Kajiado.
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The land now hangs in the balance. Despite countless requests to authorities including the Kajiado County Lands Adjudication Office and the Ministry of Lands, the community has yet to be furnished with key documents including the official aerial list and
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the survey map. Carbon projects are anchored on the principle of free, prior, and informed consent.
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The Kajiado Rangelands Carbon Project is present in at least eight group ranches in Kajiado including Olkeri, Selenkay, and Olgulului.
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Some of these ranches had already undertaken the subdivision process, enabling residents to receive their title deeds.
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Some of them legally sold off their lands, and the new owners have received title deeds. However, the new individual owners were not informed or consulted about the carbon project, violating the principle of free, prior, and informed consent. Souls for the Future Africa
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only engaged group ranch officials. This year, a residents association made up of a number of individual land owners from the Selenkay area sued organizations including the Kajiado County Government for infractions including illegal carbon trading, destruction of property, [music] and denial of access to their
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land. Many of these residents say there was plotted around the same time as the entry of the carbon project. Farm owners in particular are being targeted.
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In September 2025, rangers from Big Life, a conservation NGO that had partnered with the county, as well as the Kenya Wildlife Service and officials of Kajiado County, were charged with destruction of property worth 10 million shillings on one farm.
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We verified several reports of similar destructive attacks by county and Big Life officials in the Selenkay area.
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[music] The Law Society of Kenya joined the case by the Golden Fields Residents Association in September this year as an interested party. Noting the cases relevant to land rights for communities and individuals. The lawyers body highlighted a controversial directive
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from President William Ruto in 2023, which suspended issuance of environmental and social impact assessment licenses in key conservation areas including Kajiado and halted the subdivision of lands in these areas until conservation policy is done.
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According to LSK, the entire scheme of declaring special planning areas and suspending ESIA licenses is calculated to facilitate the collection of carbon credits with the direct and intended effect of excluding the true and rightful beneficiaries, namely the affected communities whose land and
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resources underpin such schemes. The county has also set up barricades blocking access to various farms.
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Ironically, while Selenkay residents are being harassed over their farming and construction activities, we found a large farm and residence associated with a senior county official in the area.
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Satellite imagery confirmed the existence of a large farm, house and dam on a piece of land in Selenkay associated with the official.
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The county chief officer for agriculture is Samson Parashina who also happens to be the president of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, a partner of Big Life on carbon projects in Chyulu Hills.
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Several other farm owners and workers around the area told African Uncensored that they had faced similar attacks and even dangerous assault.
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In a stunning admission, Souls for the Future in its response to African Uncensored confirmed that several individual land owners were not consulted despite their land being listed as part of the 1.5 million hectare carbon project area. According to Souls for the Future, it is not easy
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to obtain information on the change of land ownership as more people sell their land.
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"We have been our maps removing privately owned land parcels from the project whose owners do not want to be part of the [music] project and we do this every time we discover that the ownership of a given piece of land has
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changed." The organization said. Some of the individual land owners we spoke to, however, had purchased their lands [music] in 2020 before the carbon project's entry and were never engaged by Souls for the Future. Meaning that Souls for the Future failed to gain
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their free prior and informed consent before listing their properties as part of the project.
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It has also failed to respond to queries from some private land owners on their land status despite their claim that they update the maps every [music] time they discover a land change.
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Even in communities that willingly agreed to let the Kajiado rangelands carbon project set up shop, trouble is brewing.
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Residents of Ol Keri are being divided by restrictions on grazing patterns and in Ol Gulului and Selenkay, communities are not getting what they were promised.
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Maikel Ole Penja is a tour guide and pastoralist living in Ol Keri Group Ranch.
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I transferred my rights eh to Souls for the Future. Why should why do they control me?
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The deal between KRCP and the county had also included supporting conservation in the Amboseli National Park. But even the park, one of Kenya's most iconic, has not been spared.
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On our visit to Amboseli, we found multiple unmarked construction projects ongoing inside the park and along key wildlife corridors, potentially disrupting the free movement of animals.
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One such project is a luxury camp with 22 lodges on the Kitirua wildlife corridor, which residents and workers say is connected to a senior county government official.
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Inside the park, we also spotted quarters and construction materials used by workers engaged in the construction of a luxury hotel allegedly associated with a top official of the national government.
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We could not independently verify the hotel's ownership due to the lack of official documentation, which is itself a red flag.
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There are strict regulations for construction inside national parks and on wildlife corridors, but those do not seem to apply here.
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Following the handover of the Amboseli, Kajiado Governor Ole Lenku announced a plan to put 1 million acres of Maasai community lands under conservation programs and conservancies.
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Mordecai Ogada is an author and conservation expert. Um just 3 days ago, the governor of Kajiado said the Maasai community is going to give 1 million acres of land to conservation.
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And I would who which 1 million? Whose land? That 1 million acres, where are the people the people are living on that land, grazing animals on that land, doing farming on that land or whatever, living there? Where are they going to
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go? And is it his to give? That's bizarre in the extreme for someone to make a a [music] unless he was talking about he's giving his land, a piece of his own land. It's bizarre in the extreme. Demand for
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carbon credits is rising [music] and is expected to surge in the coming years as major global companies look to offset their carbon emissions for a fee.
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Kenya's government is taking note led by President William Ruto. He sees carbon offsetting as a massive economic opportunity and has backed legislation including the carbon act to guide the operations of carbon projects in Kenya.
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But the Kajiado rangelands carbon project continues to operate despite the controversy surrounding its first project in Kenya, the northern rangelands carbon project. It was suspended by carbon certifier Vera amid concerns on free prior and informed consent. The project was backed by the
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northern rangelands trust whose affiliated conservancies on community lands in Isiolo County, Biliko Bulesa and Cherab, were declared unconstitutional in January 2025.
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Are there safeguards in place to protect Kenyans and their land? These legislations are legislations that are put in place to pave the way for those who want to come and annex these these things.
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Without a carbon act, there's no way Souls for the Future can come and legally grab land in Kajiado. But we created that act to pave the way for them. And that is how you colonize a country in the 21st century.
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19th century, you come with guns and shoot people and all that. 21st century, you come and tell them you've come to save them.
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And you pay their legislators to come up with laws that favor your saviorism. Across Kajiado, the fractures remain evident. In Oldonyo Nyokie, the community remains split on whether the land should be subdivided or not and if under different circumstances, carbon
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projects should be allowed to operate in the area. In Selenkay, farm workers fear for their lives and land owners grapple with constant security breaches.
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In Ol Keri, family members clash over grazing restrictions. For these communities, undoing the damage is critical. It will take a from a lot to a land. It's a land.
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Which family is more squeezed? Who is more vulnerable? We are disagreeing with them because they are telling us you must follow what we tell you cuz we are we are older than you. And then we are telling them you
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must follow what we tell you because we are enlightened more than you are. If this land would be subdivided, 90 90% of the young people would be would be left landless. We as the young people know that this is more than what we see. It
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is more than what can meet the eye. This is our land. This is our This is what our forefathers had left to us. So, we are very much um afraid and very much um concerned when we see things that may
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appear as land grabbing coming near in whatever way. Mhm.
Topics:MaasaiKajiadoland grabbingcarbon creditsSouls for the Future Africaland fraudclimate financeKenyaindigenous land rightsAfrica Uncensored
