Editing Kipsigis people (section)

===== 2018 Maa-Kipsigis skirmishes =====
The Maasai and the Kipsigis have historically and traditionally antagonised each other right from and a period earlier than the Maasai era. This usually manifested as cattle raids, eventual battles and the subsequent southward thwarting and ejection of the Maasai. After Kenya's independence, there have been periodic tensions between the Maasai and the Kipsigis which have backgrounds in history and traditions and fuelled by political incitement especially during the elections period. Politicians have been said to fuel the clashes with their remarks, both in public forums and on social media. In 2018 for instance, Narok County Senator [[Olekina Ledama|Ledama Olekina]], part of the Maasai community, has been criticised for remarks about the evictions.<ref name="landportal.org">{{Cite web|url=https://landportal.org/news/2018/09/kenya%E2%80%99s-mau-forest-evictions-balancing-conservation-human-rights-and-ethnic-clashes|title=Kenya's Mau Forest Evictions: Balancing Conservation, Human Rights, and Ethnic Clashes|date=18 September 2018|website=Land Portal|language=fr|access-date=19 March 2020|archive-date=3 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403235413/https://landportal.org/news/2018/09/kenya%E2%80%99s-mau-forest-evictions-balancing-conservation-human-rights-and-ethnic-clashes|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2018 particularly, the Uhuru government under the Minister of Lands evicted a section of the [[Mau Complex Settlement|Mau Complex]] settlers who are mainly of Kipsigis ethnicity. The evictions were particularly forceful, inconsiderate, inhuman and without compensation. A major section of the Maasai leaders supported the evictions and are said or known to have committed hate speech. In the wake of the polarisation, the Maasai are reported to have attacked Kipsigis evictees and in retaliation, Kipsigis men in Narok and Bomet counties retaliated. The battles implored the use of crude or/and traditional weaponry including nuts (a nut used to fit to a screw fitted onto a wooden handle about a foot and a half long), spears, bows and arrows, swords and torches (or at least, petrol/gasoline and lighters).

Following the 2018 evictions and Maasai-Kipsigis clashes, several human-rights defenders came together to file a paper in protest of the human-rights violations committed by the Kenyan government in evicting people from the forests; it said in part, "The actions of the Government of Kenya in forcibly evicting tens of thousands of people from forests violates a range of human rights, which are contained in international instruments to which Kenya is a State Party." Kenyan lawyer [[Leonard Sigey Bett]] filed a petition with the [[International Criminal Court]] at [[The Hague]] in the [[Netherlands]] challenging the evictions. Environmental conservation groups generally support the eviction of people from the forest, but only if the exercise is done amicably and humanely.<ref name="landportal.org"/>